The Fate of the World
by Creedog VanDrey
Summary: Book 3 of the Creedogmon's Power of Crests Trilogy. The DigiDestined, faced with a new, strange evil, make an incredible journey to save the world. 17 of ? Chapters.
1. Forever or Not

The Fate of the World: Forever or Not

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon___

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The Power DigiDestined have a meeting to discuss the future.

A/N: Whoo-hoo! This is the third part. I think this is going to the best one. I have no idea how long this one is going to be, but I'll do my best to make good literary decisions when writing this one. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 1: Forever or Not

The day after the mirage from Gennai, I meet with the other DigiDestined, minus Katmondu and Virginia of course, in front of the school. Anna has yet to arrive. Jessica and I tell them we have big news. Unfortunately, our watches tell us we don't have enough time. We figure we'll tell them later.

Anna walks up, smiling, "Hey, you havin' a down-low meeting without me?"

"Sorry," Jessica tells her, "big stuff's happening."

Justine catches Anna's eyes, "Uh, actually, Anna, can I talk to you for a second?"

They leave the group and go to a secluded corner and talk. I glance back and see a look of utmost shock on Anna's face from whatever Justine's telling her. _I guess I'm not the only one with big news._ I try to think of what it is, but neither Mr. Reyes nor Justine has mentioned anything of importance this week in the carpool. Regardless, the principal is shooing us in. I'll have to figure it out later.

The two begin to walk in. Justine looks terrible about herself. Anna can barely look at Justine, not because of anger, but of grief. _Something's up._

"Christopher!" my mom calls when I get home today. "Mrs. Frend called. I think she wants you to baby-sit."

_Of course she does._ She tells me over the phone that she wants me at her house this Friday at seven to baby-sit Virginia. Today's Thursday. I tell her that'd be fine. _I wish I could get a chance to meet with the rest of the team soon_. Then, an idea.

"Oh, wait. I forgot I may have a study group."

"Oh, really…" she says sadly. She really wants a night out on the town. It's been almost a whole week since her last one.

"Um, I hate to ask this. But, could I, for like ten or fifteen minutes meet with some friends. At anytime. Virginia would be asleep. It'd be a quick review. They could just come in. I promise I won't feed them or anything."

She inhales. "How many?"

"Two or three." _Or seven…_

"I guess, but keep an eye on Virginia."

"Of course."

Spicer, whose weekend bedtime is eight-thirty, is snoozing by then. In years past, she'd keep me up as long as possible. Now, we watch the sunset and I have to carry her in. It's hard to see her halo, but I can just barely make it out, with the reflection of the sun.

My "two or three" friends arrive at eight forty-five. We don't invite Eric. Jessica and I go into great detail about the visions both of us have been having. Matt and James show bemused concern. Matt finally replies, "I don't know what that means. The group is of twelve, which includes a couple of us in Powered-Up form. There are only eleven of us, though, and most of us don't turn into any of the animals described. And Jim Bob and Eric don't have powers, but digimon." James opens his mouth to say something, but doesn't. I almost call him about it, but Justine breathes in heavily, looking sad, and Anna suddenly expression becomes furious. The conversation quickly changes.

"My mom was transferred…" _Oh no_, I think. "…to Cincinnati."

"Effective when?" I ask, flatly. My father works at the company her mom does, a huge multinational sales and distribution company. We moved four times before my dad reached a managerial position, and we got to stay in Raytonville.

"Effective July 1," she says as if she'd memorized the memo.

Jessica asks, "How long?"

I answer, somewhat caustically, "Until her mom reaches Level III: Manager of Sales Reps or something like that."

"A couple years, probably. Either we'll stay there, or I'll move somewhere else. Japan, Germany, Argentina… who knows?"

Anna gets up and goes to the restroom. I think she's crying.

Daniel looks up, "Meaning, if we're going to be part of some Destiny save-the-world kind of thing, it's going to be in the next two months."

"He's right. We don't have DigiPorts. If we're split up, we can't go save the world. We'll have to wait until it gets us, assuming it can." I mutter.

Silence enters, but is quickly filled with other stories and reviewed details of our adventures. It's time-filler. We're lost without a map and trying to make one without landmarks.

They were there for almost an hour and a half.

James answers the phone. "Hello?"

"Well," the familiar voice says.

"Diana, you got to talk to Chris or something. I'm not going to be your middleman."

"How do I even know if I'm part of this group?"

"Because we're one short."

"What?"

"Listen…."

A telephone slams in an awkwardly lighted room.

"They got away!" the middle-aged man curses, the stars on his collar gleaming from the lamp in the far corner. He rubs his rough chin and moves his fingers across a world map on the wall.

A man walks in and salutes. "Sir?"

"We got ourselves some loose chickens. Probably flying due east right now. They'll get to Angela, then Dale, then Atlas." They could already be there. The officer doesn't seem fazed by the codenames.

"Report, sir. Intended Destination is the home of a large chemical plant. We don't know if they have the supplies necessary. However, a plant of that magnitude will have pretty much whatever they need."

"Plasma samples broke down everything?"

"We got what we could. No completes though. They're too unstable."

"You know. It's not enough for some people to make bombs in their backyards or hijack ammunition trucks anymore. They gotta do something memorable, brand-spankin' new."

The digital clock on the nightstand reads 12:03 in bright red digits. The lamp is on and the girl with long, blond hair draws on a large sheet of paper with a red marker. She's already drawn a large triangle with a small triangle in the middle of it. She connects the two with a line at the bases, and then draws a non-connecting line above the point of the smaller one. Finally, she draws a small cross above the line. She counts the points, not happy with the result.

Suddenly she hears something. She quickly turns off the lamp and jumps in bed quietly. A few seconds later, the line of light appears on her wall as the door opens. Whispering can be heard.

"See, Dear, she's asleep." a man's voice comes.

"I saw the light on." a woman's answers.

"Probably a car or something."

"I'm little worried. She's gotten a little reclusive."

"She's never been that sociable. She's has plenty of friends. From church and the boy she writes letters to."

The woman sighs, "What's with that picture on the wall? You don't thinks she's gotten into…"

"Honey, don't overreact. It's probably homework or something. You know how into her literature projects she gets. She's fifteen."

"I guess. And the doll?"

"Being a teenager is hard. Maybe it's for school. Maybe she just needs something for comfort."

The door closes and Diana's eyes open. She'd always been so close to her family. But now there was this tension. There was this barrier. She thinks, _and there's a barrier in between me and what's creating the first barrier._

Reluctantly, she closes her eyes, but watches the wall as a car light from outside creates refractions from her crystal globe. They dance over the picture, sometimes aligning briefly with the lines on the poster. At one point, a point appears in the middle, but then spreads in two directions. Diana jumps out of bed, grabs a marker off her desk and starts to draw circles on her poster.

A/N: I'm trying to create intrigue, but I'm not sure how well it's working. Anyway, I hope this is working fairly well. I'm sorry if it seems slow now. It's about to catch up really fast really soon.

- Just a second, why wasn't the Herald of Sarcasm invited to this little meeting? And would someone please tell me what's going on with the military passages?

A/N: No.

- Oh, well, read on with me, folks. I sure ain't getting any inside information.


	2. Divided

The Fate of the World: Divided

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon___

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG-13 (Somewhat graphic, beware)

Language: English

Summery: The school choirs visit the National Choral Competition in Atlanta. Let's just say the timing's wrong.

A/N: I almost hate to start the action, because I was really getting into the suspense. I don't want to say too much in the summery, because you might as well not read the chapter. There's also the thing where I haven't planned where I'm going to start and stop each story arc, so I may not get to the point I though I was going to.

Chapter 2: Divided 

I hop out of the car. My mom says good-bye, but it's dull. She's still a little sore from yesterday. Apparently, I went through a red light. It didn't look red to me. I was green when I started and turned yellow as I entered it. That's perfectly legal. Mom insists I went through it as it turned red. I'm a good kid, but not that good of a driver. It's tough being fifteen.

: : :

The day passes without a hitch, and I'm glad. I've gone through lots of hitches recently. All the fighting, which is over, thank goodness. I keep getting in fights with my mom because of mistakes I'm making. I'd think there something wrong with me, but I can't put my finger on it.

Well, there's the obvious, but how would my DigiDestiny be affecting my driving?

I walk by the cafeteria and see Stuart Dora slip in through the double doors. _Must be trying to skip class._ Still, his methods are rather amateur.

: : :

Stuart slips into the cafeteria, unnoticed. The tables are already laid out for today's lunch in a few hours, but there are no cafeteria ladies in sight. He pulls a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Footsteps near and someone opens the door.

The principal walks through the empty cafeteria on his way to the office, passing by the middle table with a dark-haired boy crouched beneath it. Stuart watches the charcoal-colored slacks pass by him. He waits until he hears the telltale sign of the sound of the door closing. He lights the cigarette, puts it in his mouth, and sits back, putting his hand behind him for support. He frowns; the cigarette falls to the edge of his lip at his pulls his hand back and looks at the black substance on his hand. He shakes his hand, but none of the thick, oily substance falls off. It continues to drip down his arm.

He curses, trying to wipe it on his jeans, while he looks back at the large black puddle behind him. He winces all of a sudden and falls forward, gripping his arm.

: : :

Stuart isn't in homeroom that day. I'm not surprised. There are several students missing. The choir has gone on a field trip. That's not surprising. What I am surprised by is the unscheduled fire drill. Bored, the class exits the classroom. I see Daniel in the hall and we exchange looks. On our way out of the school, we pass by the cafeteria. I think of Stuart and make a prediction about the source of the alarm.

As if reading my mind, Daniel's and my digivices squeal as we walk, so we quickly turn a corner, pull out our digivices, and try to muffle them. I don't know what the teachers will think our digivices are, but regardless, it's probably something we shouldn't have. Then I smell something.

I open the cafeteria door and am bombarded by a smoky smell. "Dude, it's a real fire." I tell Daniel.

Sniffing, he tells me, "That's cigarette smoke."

"Yeah, but that's not cigarette fire." I tell him, pointing inside. There is a small fire under one of the tables. I close the door. "Chris, dude, you could put it out."

"Daniel, I'm not using my power to put out a fire. Plus, it would look very strange if the firemen break in and I'm standing there with a dead fire. We're supposed to be outside."

Convinced, Daniel follows me as we catch up with the last students. For a little bit, at least. Suddenly, we heard the muffled sound of an explosion while tongues of fire spit out from under the cafeteria doors. We run out with the rest of the students. Outside, we look back. There are now several large columns of smoke coming out of the roof.

"Attention, there is a fire in the cafeteria. Do not panic. The fire department will be here shortly."

"Daniel, fires don't grow fast. How did it spontaneously super-combust?"

"It's a cafeteria; maybe it found the gas line."

"In the middle of the cafeteria?"

Daniel's response is overcome by a large collapsing sound. A huge cloud of smoke now floats from above the cafeteria. The roof has collapsed. I check my watch. "Roofs don't collapse because of fire in four minutes!"

Fire engines fill the front parking lot, and a horde of firefighters run past us. There is some mayhem now. Teachers try to silence it, but they can't get over the occasional scream. My heart is beating a mile a minute. I've never been much of an intuitive person, but even half-blind people can see theater lights shown directly into their faces.

A fireman runs out, holding something. He drops it on the ground. It's a person, his skin charred. I turn away, but catch a glimpse of the fireman beginning rescue procedures, but I hear him say something, probably cursing, and I see him beat his fist against the ground. Then I realize. It's Stuart.

"That's Stuart Dora," I tell Daniel, breathless.

"Oh, no."

"I saw him in the cafeteria. He ran in before school. I didn't tell anyone. I didn't have time." I'm about to break down, but then, "Hold it. Stuart was caught smoking at the basketball game. Cigarette smoke…"

"Chris, he's still dead."

"He wasn't killed by fire. Something evil killed him." Even I have to notice my cryptic speech is rather unlike me.

"Cigarettes are evil…"

"So is…" Before I get a chance to finish, there is deafening roar. Like out of a sci-fi movie, something huge, black, and formless emerges from atop the school. The fire and smoke have ceased, the last wisps disappearing into the air. At first, it looks like mountain, but quickly falls over, spreading across the roof.

There is more screaming from girls. Our digivices squeal again. "Looks like we're in trouble." I tell Daniel, but he's already in Champion form.

"Victory of Stone!" he cries. A large rock crag emerges from under the black ooze, but does nothing. A black tentacle forms from the mess and strikes Daniel, who falls to the ground, unhurt.

"Matador Dash!" Eric's bull digimon cries, crashing into the building and causing a great golden blast from within. The bull is thrown back through the glass door. Eric goes to help him, "Bullmon! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a scratch." The bull gets up and goes to attack again.

"Eric! Are you crazy?" I tell him.

"C'mon, Chris, if Daniel gets to go rocky, so should I."

Before I have a chance to answer, the Sanguine and the Patron are seen jumping onto the school to fight, but both are thrown back in a similar manner. Realizing that keeping my identity a secret is secondary to saving my school from strange monsters, I, too, get ready to attack, but find my effort equally thwarted. _What kind of digimon is this, if at all?_ Attack after attack, we are unable to even faze the strange black ooze. We try holding back, but it lunges for us. The students have long since scattered, not even noticing our transformations.

We regroup. As the Inquirer too is fought back, she joins Phillip, Daniel, Anna, Eric and I.

"This isn't working," Daniel comments.

"Where's everyone else?" Phillip asks.

In unison, Anna and Justine answer, "Choir Concert."

I answer, "That's where Matt, Jessica, and James are. Virginia and Katmondu are at their respective houses."

"We need backup," Anna says.

"Obviously. Where's the choir competition? And why aren't you at it, Anna?"

"Had to make up a test. My mom was gonna take me after lunch."

Daniel speaks, "You might have to get there earlier."

"It's an hour and a half away!"

"And we still have to get Virginia and Katmondu." I add.

Justine speaks, "Well, as I see it, we have two places to go and no way to get there."

Phillip, in a moment of brilliance, says, "Patron could carry them."

Anna says, "The Sanguine can fly, but none of you can handle the heat."

There is a short silence, then…

"I can." I tell her. She nods.

"I'll stay her with Eric and hold them off," volunteers Daniel. Eric nods. Daniel continues, "Christopher, take Anna to your neighborhood and get Virginia and Katmondu. Phillip and Justine, you're going to Altanta."

Phillip frowns, "How do we get there?"

Anna gives Phillip a map, "These are directions for my mom. Follow them the best you can."

"Okay, thanks." Phillip hands them to Justine, who looks them over and puts them in her pocket. Phillip transforms and Justine mounts the twelve-foot form, gripping his neck. Daniel, Eric, and Bullmon run forward and wait to attack. Anna ignites herself and I grasp hold of her, my aura sizzling immediately.

"Ready?"

Sharply, I respond, "I'll never be ready. Just get the heck out of here. I'm roasting." Fiery wings emit from Anna's back and we quickly take flight. The Patron is already running full speed ahead.

The black ooze forms itself into a grotesque humanoid form. Daniel jumps up to attack and is immediately knocked down. It's hard to look now. My eyes are watering, so I close them and hold on tight to Anna. Then I hear something coming toward us.

: : :

A/N: Well, this is a nice place to leave off. You're just going to have to read the next chapter. Hehehe, I'm so sort of evil.

(Sonriso)- Come on black thing! Bring it on! The Herald will take you out! After two seconds of my Sarcasm power, you'll be crying on the floor with low self-esteem. Hey! Watch those tentacles!


	3. On the Run

The Fate of the World: On the Run

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon___

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG (The story overall is PG-13; this chapter is mild)

Language: English

Summery: Time slips away as the DigiDestined struggle to reunite before the monster does too much damage.

A/N: I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am. Bear in mind that I will be re-updating these stories until the end of time. I've already got too much on my plate.

Chapter 3: On the Run

Gripping tightly to Anna's shoulders, I look back. The long black arm is breaking apart, sending boomerang-shaped gliders after us. "Anna," I gasp.

She ascends quickly, spinning around to see before diving to clear the path of a glider. A dozen of them quickly chase after us. "Hold on, Chris," she tells me. _I am holding on!_ Without warning, she flies straight up, the gliders close on our tail, and make a quick vertical curve, sending us into a downspin. I can barely make out the blurry ground.

Anna quickly levels off, going into a wide curve, slightly downward. The gliders follow her helix. She jets straight ahead. The gliders follow. I suddenly notice we are very near my neighborhood, but hindered by the miniature forests that surround all the houses.

"Anna, we're almost there." I tried to point, but can't hold on. "My house is right ahead."

"I see it," she calls back. "Fasten your seat belts; we're about to land,"

She turns downward, straight at the forest. "Anna!" I scream, "Are you crazy?"

"Head over heels." With her heels above her head, she takes a straight path toward my lawn. Suddenly, we are engulfed in larger and hotter flames. We run directly into the trees. Anna's heated aura rapid-burns the trees, and I have to close my eyes because of ash. The crackling of the fire is noisy, but the crashes of the gliders into the trees are louder still. I can also make out a treetop or two being repositioned to the ground layer. I try to count them, but they are in rapid succession. Suddenly, Anna inhales sharply and we crash land in my side yard. Anna stops where she lands limply. I roll a few feet. A glider crashes between us.

: : :

The Patron begins to dash forward, with Justine on his back. Racing through the parking lot and avoiding cars as often as possible, he tries to get out of sight as soon as possible. It doesn't go as planned. His enhanced hearing allows him to dodge the strike of one of the black tentacles. "Hold on, Justine," he tells the already struggling rider. His efforts are in vain. He skids to a stop as the tentacle strikes again in front of him, blocking his path. He growls.

"I got, Phillip," she tells him. The Inquirer, in her dark gown, calls out, "Enigma of Star!" The white blast strikes the tentacle, sending a resounding force upon the tentacle, which retreats. Phillip wastes no time getting away. He catches the falling Justine in his mouth and begins to race. Securely out of reach and sight of the monster, he takes to the forest that runs parallel to the highway just outside of town. Risking exposure, he nears the edge of the forest and catches a glimpse of overhead highway sign pointing the way to Atlanta.

: : :

I get up and inspect Anna. She's breathing, but unconscious and feverish. She's wiped out from the extreme use of her power or the crash. Maybe both. I move her to farther into the woods, away from the sight of my mother, who no doubt heard the crash of the last glider, which has dissipated. I call upon my power, finding myself weak from dehydration, but the moist air around me replenishes the aura quickly. With superhuman ability, I leap up to my bedroom window. I startle Katmondu, who was napping on the windowsill. I hang on the border. I check for my mom; she's not there. I open it quietly, slipping in. I hear the front door close. I tiptoe to my bedroom door. She hasn't just come in. She's gone out, to check on the sound of the glider crash.

"Kitty, we've got work to do."

: : :

I hop out the window when I hear my mom reenter the house. I land softly to the ground, as does Katmondu, though not without a little help from me. I held him as I jumped and, at five feet above the ground, threw him lightly in the air, allowing him to land gracefully. I walk over to Anna, hoping to revive her. I've packed my backpack with appropriate supplies and hope to do my best to help her. I'm encountered with a surprise.

: : :

Diana looks up as Christopher nears her, his face in a state of shock. She sighs out. "Hey, Christopher." She's tending to Anna, but stands up timidly.

"Hey," he replies, his voice showing signs of being muddled.

"We followed you over."

"We?"

Hawkmon jumps from out of the bushes, waving.

"Hawkmon is a real digimon?" he says in wonderment.

Indignantly, she replies, "Well, of course I'm a real digimon."

"That's not what I mean," he speaks to the hawk for the first time, "Diana told me you were a doll." He turns to his friend, "Diana. I guess you're DigiDestined. I am too, though I don't have a digimon. You're kind of like…"

"James Warren and Eric McFly, I know." Without pausing she continues, counting on her fingers, "You, your cat, Virginia, Anna, Matt Jomahns, Phillip Maxx, Justine Reyes, Daniel Ponille, and Jessica Williams are DigiDestined with mystical powers."

Almost angrily, he replies, "Wait! You know? Why didn't you tell me?"

Calmly, she replies, "You didn't tell me."

"I didn't know you weren't a DigiDestined. You knew I was! By the way, how did you know?"

"You've never had a widow's peak before."

: : :

I become silent. She finishes, "Then I saw your digivice. James has been filling me in with what he knows." She shows me hers.

"Twelve…" I mutter.

"Yeah." She pulls out a sheet of paper, showing me a diagram of triangle and circles. "I'm trying to figure out what your dream meant."

"Later," I tell her harshly, but show that I don't mean to, "we've got to get to Atlanta."

"Atlanta?"

"Matt and Jessica are in Atlanta at some big choir convention. That black thing at the school is big trouble. We need everybody together."

"Okay, let's go."

"Two problems: Anna's not in flying form, and we have to get Virginia."

"Virginia!? Are you crazy?"

"We need her."

"Christopher, with all the chaos going on at Westwood, it's less of a problem that we're all missing. Taking Katmondu is fine. He's a cat; he runs around. But if we Virginia, it's her second kidnapping in a month."

"Diana, we're saving the world here. Virginia is the strongest one. She'll be fine."

"Christopher, you can't…"

"Diana, I'm going to. Now, excuse me, I need Anna." She steps in my way. "Diana!"

Looking me square in the eyes, she says, "Hawkmon, armor digivolve. We're going to Virginia's. I'll take Anna."

We smile in sequence. A pink light comes from Diana's golden-yellow digivice and Hawkmon becomes a large bird-featured female humanoid. 

"Harpymon," I mutter.

"Yes, she's the one who helped you at the basketball game." We smile again. This time, I almost laugh.

"Mount up."

: : :

Daniel, bruised and battered, pushes himself up for the hundredth time. He can barely stand up and walks warily. He holds his hand up to attack again, but falls over. A black tentacle comes at him, but Bullmon deflects it. He is breathing heavily, but Eric cheers him on from the safety of a tree. He huffs at the black form that is enveloping the school.

Suddenly, it sinks back into the cafeteria and out of sight.

Daniel sees this and passes out.

: : :

A/N: (exciting music) Whoo. This isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Now, I can't be objective and says this is either fun to read or not fun to read, because I am the author. If there was only somewhat that someone who isn't the author could tell me if it was exciting or not.

(Sonriso)- Hey, I noticed that heavy sarcasm. You're trying to steal my power, are you, Creedog? Isn't it enough that your Christopher character has his silly rain power? No, you gotta take one of the most powerful forces in the universe. A force that was destined to me mine? I don't think so!


	4. Race to the Finish

The Fate of the World: Race to the Finish

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon___

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The group is heading for Atlanta, but they're not the only ones.

A/N: Okay, I'm chugging along. I'm now officially farther along than I was two years ago. So, read on.

Chapter 4: Race to the Finish

Eric, seeing Daniel unconscious, picks him up lays him atop of Bullmon. "Okay, big guy, to Atlanta."

"Uh, what's Atlanta?"

Eric is silent.

: : :

Diana and I sit outside the Frends' backyard. Mrs. Frend is playing with Virginia.

I whisper, "How are we going to get her?"

Diana pulls a cell phone out of her backpack and hands it to me. At first, I'm confused. She gives me a condescending look. I dial the Frends' house number. The phone rings from inside.

"Stay here, Honey," Mrs. Frend tells her daughter.

"What do I say?" I ask, panicking.

She pulls the phone from my hand. 

Swaying her hair aside, she invents a fake British accent, "Hello, would this be the residence of Missus Liz Frend? Thank you…" She puts her hand over the receiver and gives me a sharp, "Go!" before returning to the phone.

I jump and wave Virginia over here. Diana continues, "Well, Mrs. Frend, I am a representative of the Atlanta Tennis Association. We've called the local health club and they recommended you."

She comes giggling. I introduce her to the now life-like Hawkmon, who she immediately takes to. Meanwhile, I put a sheet of notebook paper out of my binder and scribble a note.

Diana suddenly yelps, "Hawkmon, armor digivolve! She's coming out. Virginia, come here."

The back door opens around the corner of the house. "Virginia?" Mrs. Frend calls. I give Virginia to Arielle, who is being held by Harpymon's left arm. I grab Anna in one arm and Katmondu in the other, and Harpymon's other arm wraps around me, and we are instantly pulled into the air. Virginia is near crying because of the large monster that Hawkmon has become, no matter how angelic Harpymon looks.

As we ascend past the tree line, I look at Mrs. Frend. I can't tell whether she's looking around frantically for Virginia or has found my note, but I can just imagine how bad it's going to be.

: : :

Mrs. Frend picks up the note, her eyes tearing, reading the scrawled letters carefully.

"Dear Mrs. Frend,

We are sorry to have taken your daughter. She will not be hurt. We don't want money. We will return her as soon as we can, safe and sound. All I can say is"

The letter stops mid-sentence. Mrs. Frend turns it around. There's no signature. Bawling, she runs back into her house, ripping the phone off the hook, and violently presses 911.

: : :

In a room lit only by a metallic overhanging lamp, a folder is dropped on the general's desk. The gruff man looks up. "Well," he snaps.

The officer salutes. "It's begun, sir. 911 call to the police station about a missing child. It was the Bonnet."

"Do we know if it's the gas or real?"

"We don't. We don't know if the mother's been exposed, or if the Trespassers got her. Hell, one of the vics may have taken her. Lord knows what they're seeing."

"They say the chemical is very exact in its nature," the general states, opening his folder, "What ever it is, it's the same world they're seeing." After pausing, he looks up, "So it's eleven?"

"Eight of them fit the profile. The Bonnet's even there. But the three new ones match the DNA."

"…Undetermined… What is this? It says they found twelve syringes."

"The twelfth didn't even register. It must have been contaminated. They say there are DNA compounds, but the percent error is off the charts."

"Interesting. Keep looking. They can't still be in Atlas. The kids aren't there."

: : :

"Run, Bullmon!" Eric screams, mounted on Bullmon, holding the unconscious Daniel. The bull runs away from the school at full speed, avoiding the black ooze.

Safely away from the monster, Bullmon screeches jumps onto a residential street, stopped and leaving potholes in the road. "Eric?" he asks, in his deep, husky voice.

"Somehow, we gotta get to Atlanta, Bullmon. It's a big city several miles from here. I don't know how to get there, though. Daniel may, but he seems out of service." Eric checked Daniel's pulse. It was strong, but he hadn't awoken. "Bullmon, could you run a long way?"

"Not now, I'm exhausted. Give me time to rest. Eric hops off his digimon, carefully laying Daniel down on the forest green space separating the main road from the residential area. Bullmon dedigivolves and Wormmon lies on his side, pooped. Eric looks around, seeing only the small houses lined up, each with their own lawns, trees, and driveways. There are several family cars sitting out side the homes, and then Eric gets an idea.

"Wormmon, I need your chomping power." Wearily, Wormmon agrees. Eric tiptoes over to a nearby car, a blue-green sedan. He holds Wormmon to the passenger side door handle, which he bites with his hard beak-like mouth. The car alarm goes off instantly, but Eric pulls the broken door open, the latch severed, pops open the glove box and grabs all the maps inside. He runs back, throwing a few of them away on his return trip. By the time he has retreated to the safety of the forest, he has the maps he's looking for: the "State of Georgia" and "Savannah." From behind the trees, he unfolds the latter map, tracing the road paths from Raytonville, a suburb of Savannah, to the main high way going west. He picks up the state map and traces the highway out of Savannah and into Atlanta.

Daniel then rouses. "Eric?"

"Hey, Daniel, you're awake!"

"Yeah, sore, though. Where are we?"

"Some neighborhood. I pulled you out of the fight."

"Thanks a lot. We gotta get to Atlanta, don't we?" Then the realization hit him, "But how we gonna get there? I don't know the way."

"I do," Eric says, holding up the maps.

"Good job, Eric. I'm impressed."

"Why, because of my insanity?"

"Eric, because of your… thing."

"You mean the craziness and complete social ineptness?"

"Eric, you're a smart kid. Brilliant. But genius comes at a price, I guess."

Eric smirks, "Well, when Wormmon here recovers, we'll get movin'."

"Yeah," Daniel replies. "It didn't follow us?"

"No. It's weird. It followed Phillip for a quarter mile. And those plane thingies after Chris? It's really after us."

Daniel's eyes widen. "What if he's following us to Atlanta? We got to get there first. Phillip's got a head start. And Chris may, too, depending on if he got his cat and Virginia."

"Let's go, then." Wormmon says, swallowing the last mouthful of leaves that he's been chomping on.

Eric pulls out his digivice.

: : :

Daniel and Eric stand at the edge of the woods, looking towards the exit ramp onto the highway. Sure, enough, the black creature slowly slides his way onto the road.

Eric laughs, "At this rate, he won't get there until next week. Let's go."

"Wait," Daniel commands.

The black blob starts to raise itself up and comes slamming down onto the pavement, breaking the street and slipping into the hole. Suddenly, large cracks appear on the street and the traffic lights go out. Within seconds, several cars have crashed and caused a traffic jam.

"Well…" Daniel starts, "good thing we're not taking the bus."

: : :

Harpymon descends. I am almost in shock, but she sets us down easily. Without a word, Harpymon dedigivolves and Katmondu transforms. I lay Anna down. She's still not awake. Her pulse is there, but a little slow. I realize that her aura must have saved her from the crash, but it would have been a frail aura. I mount the Defender, and Diana, with Virginia in her arms, gets behind me, holding my sides. After pausing shortly, Hawkmon armor digivolves and takes Anna in her arms. And we're off, following close by the highway.

_Jessica, Matt, we're coming._ My hands are shaking.

: : :

Jessica stands by her fellow singers as the choir teacher warms them up. There are several hours until the Westwood choirs perform, but teachers are always antsy, especially because of how prestigious this event is. The choirs traveled almost two hours to get to the large Atlanta private school, St. Vincent's. Her teacher has been ranting all morning about getting to see the Manhatten Select Girls' Chorus, made up of the best junior high singers in New York City.

Suddenly, something comes over Jessica. All morning, her thoughts had been filled with excitement and even a little bit of stress, but for a fleeting moment, she swore she heard something in the back of her mind. A voice, maybe; she couldn't tell. In that moment, she felt an overwhelming sense of fear and painful endurance. It felt like something out of a war movie, like the feeling portrayed by the characters right before they going into battle. She swallows. _What the hell is going on?_

: : :

A/N: Sorry for the extensive delay, which actually occurs somewhere in the middle of the last book. Anyway, I had a very important project that I was working on which will be up very soon.

(Sonriso)- Ooh, Sonriso loves dramatic tension! The Lord Sonriso Somighty will be working hard to get his next fic out. Yeah, Creedog, too.


	5. The Last Leg

The Fate of the World: The Last Leg

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The group is heading for Atlanta, but they're not the only ones.

A/N: Okay, I'm chugging along. I'm now officially farther along than I was two years ago. So, read on.

Chapter 5: The Last Leg

The Patron curves off the side of the road, which has since emptied, strangely. He leans his head down, softly loosens his jaw, and lays down Justine, who rouses.

"Ack!" she screeches, seeing the huge monster, but quickly composes herself, laughing. "That's one wacky, scary form you got there, Phillip."

The Patron returns to human form. Phillip kneels, "You okay?"

"Yep. We in Atlanta yet?"

Phillip signs loudly, looking down the road, "No, but we shouldn't be more than a half an hour away."

"That's good." Justine is breathing heavily. "Just tell me when you're ready to go."

"You bet." Phillip becomes quietly, looking into space pensively.

"Thinking hard?"

"Sorta. I'm just amazed about how some monstrous creature appears and we're mobilized in twenty minutes."

"Gotta save the world, don't we?"

Phillip's eyebrows lower. "How do we know that this thing is threatening the world?"

"I don't wanna take that risk. This things dangerous."

"I guess. The body count's only one."

Justine nearly explodes, "Body count?! Phillip, one death may not count for genocide, but it counts a homicide, and it sure wasn't playing tag with us back there. Now, I know you play video game twenty-six hours a day, but Stuart's not coming back to life when you hit the reset button."

Phillip replies coldly, "I'm ready," more hurt than defensive.

: : :

CJ O'Blackwell looks out the car window dully, as his mother edges forward in the small sedan on the interstate to Atlanta. CJ ruffles his unruly black hair and tries to sleep on his headrest. Unsuccessful, he turns to his left to look at his mother.

"Don't even start," she says without turning her head. "We're picking up your sister in Atlanta. We're not staying in town with those terrorists."

CJ wants to laugh, but wisely decides against it. _Terrorists?__ It didn't look like a terrorist to me; it looked like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. And that big white…_

CJ's jaw drops. He could have sworn, because of his daydreaming, he said that mammoth creature in the woods. He leans forward from the seat, scanning the woods for movement and…

"Wicked…," he mumbles.

"What?" Mrs. O'Blackwell prompts.

"Nothing. When will we get to Atlanta?"

"In this traffic? An hour." She sighs heavily and turns on the radio, which is a news story about the "terrorist" attack.

: : :

The woods are silent. A lone deer walks out onto a grassy field and starts to gnaw on some grass. A distant crack. Her neck erects quickly and her hear perk up. Another crack, then another. She turns around; the noises are coming closer. Within feet of her, just inside the woods, the cracks come. A trees falls beside her and she jets off like a rocket. Bullmon continues to run through the forest, the trees shattering in his path.

He suddenly crotches down a bit, then leaps into the air, the two boys on his back hanging on for dear life. He lands flatly on a small meadow within viewing distance of the highway. The boys get off the beast.

"Wild ride, Bullmon," Daniel comments.

"I know! Wasn't it great?" Eric adds, missing the sarcasm.

Bullmon looks pensive, "How close are we?"

Daniel looks at the highway through the trees, seeing a sign. "With your speed, twenty minutes. We're right outside downtown Atlanta. The auditorium is apparently in the Southern region of Atlanta, so we're very close. Phillip says he's gonna stay in Patron form. We can't miss that." He finished, with a smile.

Suddenly, there is the sound of an explosion from the highway. The three run to check it out. The black form the team's been trying to elude has suddenly emerged, quite conspicuously, from the asphalt. It slides through the highway, blocking all lanes as it creeps forward in a rather quick pace.

"Uh-oh," Eric turns to Bullmon, "Ready?"

"As ever," he replies.

Once again, the Bull jumps twenty feet into the air into the woods, the boys gripping his collar, their knuckles white.

: : :

I find riding on the Defender much more relaxing than hanging on to the Sanguine or in the arms of Harpymon. I've always enjoyed chasing my cat around my yard, but this is the first time I've truly appreciated his speed. Holding on to his ever rising shoulder blades, with Diana holding on to my waist with one hand, Virginia in the other, we're making great time. Harpymon, who has both hands free to hold Anna, glides above us.

Well, she was gliding above us; she swoops down to our eye level, beckoning us to stop. We slow and she lays down the rousing Anna. Her eyes pop open and she looks around, disoriented. "What?" she mumbles.

"You've been out for forty-five minutes," Diana tells her.

"We got away from the gliders. We've got Virginia. And this is Diana," I add, noting her bemused expression at Diana, "…and Harpymon," as I point behind her.

Anna jumps at first, but regains composure, though not completed in the know. "We in Atlanta yet?"

"Just outside the city limits," Diana states. "You know where we're going?"

"Yeah. Just get myself into air, and I'll show you the way."

: : :

Jessica sits anxiously in her seat. She can't dismiss this feeling of… desperation, vigilance… fear. She tries to relax. The Manhattan Select Girls is on stage, the highlight of the competition. Their director, a middle-aged woman with dyed hair is talking to them. Jessica can't hear her. In the enormous auditorium, with forty-foot ceilings and rows for hundreds of chairs, Jessica can barely hear her own breathing. She's tried several times to close her eyes and relax herself, maybe get a vision instead, but so far, has been unsuccessful.

Jessica grabs her chest with both hands. She can feel something. She feels the fear of extreme dangle, of struggle. She herself can't find a reason to be scared, but someone is, and she can feel it.

: : :__

We land softly on the ground. Anna shows us the building. It's a huge auditorium.

"Let's go," Diana says, almost lightheartedly.

We don't get two steps when an enormous creature causes a shadow on the ground and lands hard enough to rumble the earth. It's only Bullmon with the ghostly pale Daniel and Eric in tow, who pretty much slide off and land in the soft grass.

Breathing as if he were hyperventilating, Daniel gets out, "It's coming."

Before I have time to realize what "it" is, we hear an explosion, which is followed by a distant rain of asphalt from the near by road. The black, formless mass emerges from the road, greeted by a shower of water from a pulverized water main, and then…

"Wonder of Star!"

The Inquirer blasts the black thing as she jumps from the gargantuan Patron, who is already crouched in attack position.

But the mass doesn't fight back. In fact, it remains stationary even after receiving a sharp blow from Justine. All of a sudden, it begins to rise in the middle and starts to take on a vague and featureless humanoid form. The extremities that serve as it arms start to form into menacingly sharp claws, but before any color appears, the previously putty-like material that was our enemy now shreds to tatters like cloth. The tearing continues up his arms and completely covers the body. It now separates from itself, leaving the rest of the black sludge on the ground. The tatters completely cover its body, which is bony at best. Its face is covered by a hood of layered tatters, and its face in unseen in an eerie, Grim Reaper-esque fashion. The demon is well over ten feet tall, but hardly looks like it from a distance.

I tell Harpymon to take Virginia and keep her safe unless we need her.

It raises his arms into the air and the leftover blackness comes to life, forming a huge globe, which emits a toxic green glow as it expands. The Patron, examining from the road, starts to run forward at it, toward the auditorium. "Deed of Creature!"

: : :

Jessica can hardly breathe because of the terror. She excuses herself, not having heard a note of the Manhattan singers, runs into an adjacent hall, and crouches on the floor, trying to make sense of the mental anguish. Barely a vision, she realizes an inkling of a thought. She pulls herself up and finds a godsend. She pulls down on the fire alarm. Turning her head, she sees the other students filing out of their seats, somewhat disdainfully. For a moment, she becomes tranquil and this odd pleasure, but the feelings surge up again.

Jessica finds herself on the floor, against the wall again, seemingly thrown by the realism of her vision. When regains her composure, she coughs. The air is littered with dust. It wasn't a vision. She runs through the dust, back into the auditorium, where people are screaming as they flee from the room. All the chairs are in upheaval and the latter of the back wall has been bombed away. That's when she sees Christopher. She runs to his side, "Christopher?"

"Jessica. We're in trouble." His pupils then shrink as he looks ahead.

Jessica turns. A ten-foot creature, complete hidden by black tattered cloth walks in. Jessica changes into the Sister and the Caretaker gets up beside her. "Are you…" she begins.

"Fine," he cuts her off. "This thing destroyed the school; it followed us here. We couldn't hold it off, so we came here."

"Matt and James are here," explains Jessica, unnecessarily, but I don't blame her for her disorientation. Diana, who is just behind the Siblings, pushes a chair off of herself.

"Diana?"

"Hey, Jessica. DigiDestined," she says, pointing to herself. "Duck."

"Huh?" Diana grabs Jessica by the collar and pulls her to the ground, as a flying gliding nearly misses her.

: : :

I get up, pulling out my sword, and destroy two gliders with two clean swipes.

I hear a scream from on stage, so I jump up, slashing on oncoming glider. On stage is a petite brunette, about my age, crouching behind a pile of chairs. Another glider comes toward us, so I create a defense aura around the two of us, into which a glider crashes. I pull her up, "Get outta here!"

Speechless, she nods but points to the other end of the stage, where a girl is crouched. "I'll get her. Go!" The girl runs off. I run toward her, but am knocked off course by a glider.

: : :

Matt looks up and sees Christopher deflected by the glider. He jumps up, but the Caretaker already has taken care of the glider, but is now holding off a hound. He points to the corner of the stage and yells, "Get her!"

Matt looks down and sees a tall redhead, hiding, white as a sheet. She looks up at Matt, crying, then turns her head to the left and screams. Matt looks to his right and seeing the oncoming glider. He grabs her and puts his arms tightly around her. He creates a tree to grow up between them and the glider, which shatters along with the trunk. Matt pushes away the fallen tree, grabs the girl by the hand, and takes her down the stairs. He points and she runs around the chaos and out the door.

He runs over to Daniel and the two begin to alternate trying to capture the demon creature with stone and branches, but each time, the cage is destroyed by a black tentacle from blob. When they abandon this plan, they witness several large risings in the black mass, who take the form of four-legged hellhounds, who rush toward the two. Matt and Daniel exchange glances before Daniel pushes Matt back, touches the ground and pulls a crude stone club from the ground. As the hellhounds come within reach, Daniel gives each a good smack to two of the beasts, which fall over. Daniel raising his club, baseball bat style, to the remaining dogs, but the herd of the them are caught in a tree cage, which crushes them.

"Hey, I was gonna hit them," Daniel complains to Matt.

"Hit that, Mike McGuire!" Matt replies.

Daniel turns and knocks away two gliders.

: : :

I slash at the oncoming minions with my sword, finding them far from powerful. Diana has chosen the more dignified attacking style: she picks up a chair and pounds mercilessly at anything that approaches her. Jessica grabs my shoulders and whispers in my ear, "I'm behind you; hold them off for a second." I hold my sword up ready, but the approaching hellhound looks up at me then jerks his head to the right, chasing nothing, but finally settling on another hellhound to attack. In fact, all the creatures are now attacking one another. I turn around. Jessica's eyes have gone milky. She's miraged all the fighters into attacking each other.

This leaves ample time for the Patron to stomp on the lesser canines. Spiremon is having a ball chomping the gliders with his beak. That only leaves the demon. Anna and Justine stand side by side, eyes fixed on the motionless demon. Their auras reigniting, they jump forward, aided by their powers.

"Wonder of Star!"

"Brightness of Cinder!"

The girls are now surrounded by unstable spheres of energy, which lurch forward and surround the demon. The tatters start to burn away and off-white bone is uncovered beneath. The revealed bone soon shatters. The torso is worn away first, then the arms and legs. The dissolving creature falls back into its gelatinous ooze. Within seconds, a form appears rising from the black stuff. The transformation is identical to before. The creature emerges again. But this time, the spread blackness creeps back toward the center, around its originator, and starts to rise on the edges while rotating slowly. It forms into a column, reaching to the ceiling.

It begins to glow with that same toxic green light. Now unoccupied with all the fighters gone, the whole team looks to the column. Our digivices begin to shrill loudly, and shoot beams of light toward the form, which seems to absorb them. The green glow brightens then dims to nothing, leaving the column somewhat hardened. A pounding stillness ensues. I watch as dust falls straight to the ground.

I look around. Jessica stands still, also looking around. Diana puts her chair down and Hawkmon flaps down beside her, which Virginia following close behind her, more for Katmondu than Hawkmon. Katmondu rubs against my leg, oblivious. Spiremon devolves and sits down by James, who appears on the stage. Daniel and Matt exchange glances and revert to normal form. Anna and Justine stare at the column close up, not saying a word. Phillip stands dwarfed by the huge void that used to be the outside wall. Eric and Wormmon come out from around the corner.

There is a profound silence until we hear, "Wicked."

This comes from C.J. O'Blackwell, who stands, eyes wide open, standing at the very middle of the destroyed wall.

: : :

A/N: I find it very strange that I've continued to write the sequels to all these stories when I've yet to publish them. And it's not like I don't spend a lot of time on the Internet or anything. Oh, well.

(Sonriso) - Wait a second, did they win? Huh? I'm so confused! Creedogmon, you screwed everything up. Ever heard of tying up loose ends?

A/N: Halfway through the story, Sonriso?

(Sonriso) - Oh.


	6. Bus Pass

The Fate of the World: Bus Pass

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The demon is gone but far from dead. How is the team to stop the deadly menace?

A/N: Hey, why not start a new part? This is the turning point of the story. Let's just hope I can keep the momentum, if I ever had any.

Chapter 6: Bus Pass

"Wicked…" says C.J.. "What was that thing? And what were you guys doing?"

For the most part, we're all speechless, except Eric. "That thing? We don't know either, but we sure couldn't destroy it. And we are the DigiDestined."

I cover my face and groan. You can never trust Eric for a normal answer, no matter how right he was.

"C.J.," I hear myself say, "that was some creature; we're pretty sure it's evil. And… okay, here it goes…"

: : :

The story doesn't take long, but C.J. is greatly perturbed.

The gang looks around, wondering what to do. Many of them stare at the column, which Katmondu has taken to scratching on, until a large portion of it collapses, leaving an open area. The rest of the column doesn't collapse. It's hollow, we discover. The ceiling and floor that were hidden by the column is scorched. Katmondu, though initially spooked by the collapse of the paper-thin column, decides to jump in. Immediately, his digivice collar begins to glow, as does the floor he's standing on. A beam emerges from the screen and wanders, snake-like, around inside the column, but disappears as the bored cat leaves the area.

Inspired, Anna and Justine step in. This time, a column of light surrounds them. The digivices both emit snaking beams which find each others' digivices. Now, the two girls begin to glow, but oddly enough, the light… shatters. They exit, still curious, but defeated. C.J., however, approaches the column, looking at it with an oddly sense of scientific curiosity and… familiarity. He runs his hand across the inside wall.

Daniel looks around, "Now what?" He gets no answer. Exasperated, he continues, "Are you telling me that we just traversed halfway across the state to stop a vile menace who we feared was a threat to all mankind, and he disappears and leaves us with a floor-to-ceiling cocoon?"

"I don't think it's a cocoon," C.J. states, still standing in the broken column, I think it's a portal. Seeing that the ceiling and floor are still intact, I'd say it's interdimensional."

"Are you sure you haven't been reading too many comic books, C.J.?" Matt asks.

"I just witnessed you all, glowing in light, fighting with supernatural power against a foe that was emerges from a black substance. Excuse me for having a case of Mulder Syndrome." This shuts him up.

Trying to resolve what I can, I ask, "What do you think, C.J.?"

"That monster obviously went somewhere. He didn't go through the ceiling or the ground, because they're both still here. And he surely didn't go through these walls. They're several inches of cement-hard plaster. It had to travel to another dimension."

"Any clues where?" Matt asks, half serious.

"No, he didn't exactly leave a road map, unless…" at this, C.J. rubs the inside of the cave again.

"Chris, tell me what you think of this." He shows me the wall. Examining it closely, I see what he's talking about. Though the column has a rough texture, they're visible indentions and protrusions, almost circular, and in a repeating pattern. "Bump, bump, bump, bump, dent, bump, dent, dent, dent," I mumble. Then, it hits me.

"James, tell me about codes in series of eight that have two opposite characters."

"Computer byte-code. Binary, to be specific."

Daniel peeks his head in to the column, "You're telling me you think that there's _computer code_ in the walls?"

My brow ruffles, "Well, I guess it could be. It kinds of looks like it's going in a spiral pattern."

C.J., who is still staring at the wall. "Notice how many of this pattern is here."

"No, I haven't been staring at them. What is it?"

He points to me and I point it out to James. He reads it, "11110100. It's a big number. No! It's negative. Negative thirteen."

"Negative forteen. Straight 1's in negative one. It's ahead." I state.

Jessica muses, "It there any significance to -14?"

"No," a voice comes from elsewhere, from Justine. "Trust me, there's no signifance. I'd have heard about it," she claims with a sarcastic edge to her voice.

I pull my digivice from my belt loop and hold it up to the wall. It immediately lights up and the light presses against the way before fading away. "It doesn't want to read it."

Matt looks amused, "Sorry, I know this is serious important situation and all, but he just asked his digivice to read the code. I don't know why I'm in such a mood today."

"Divine inspiration," Justine comments, but even she finds her own words strange.

"Matt, you're a genius. The digivices don't need instructions how to get to the DigiWorld. You'd think that'd be hardwired in. C.J., are you…?"

"This output, not input. The wall, the marks. It's telling the portal where to go."

"And if it's burnt into the wall, then this repeated mark is…"

"Positive thirteen," James adds.

"New line break statement," Justine predicts.

"A list of commands… sending him… where?" I deduce.

Daniel sighs, "Where do you think?"

"DigiWorld," James comments, "why? He seemed pretty intent on attacking us. And if he wanted to get to the DigiWorld, why he visit?"

"Maybe he didn't know how to get there." C.J. grabs my digivice. "I think that this little bugger might know how to get there. He just… hacked the coordinates, shall we say?"

"Okay, fine," Anna admits, "but if these things can take us to the DigiWorld, and they have before, why aren't they doing it now. I mean, I'd like as much as the rest of you to forget this ever happened, but there's nothing from stopping that thing from coming back. My conscience tells me we gotta do something."

C.J. hums, "Even more than that. That thing can destroy a lot. If it can destroy a dimension, it may take the rest of God's creation with it."

"Who's to say it can destroy a dimension? This thing has been doing some standard bomb destruction. No tearing the fabric of the universe," Justine observed, "Oh gosh, I sound like an X-Men geek now."

"If you don't count the whole David Copperfield thing, yeah," C.J. states, still absorbed in the column.

James interjects, "Question at hand. I've been a DigiDestined for only two weeks now, but I gotta say, we're stuck. That thing was trouble and I'm thinking that Superman's not coming to beat his butt into the ground for us. Once more, how do we follow that thing?"

"Your digivices engulfed the column with light," C.J. says with unnatural expertise, "my guess, it was sucking in digital code to get to the digital world. If you guys wanna get there, we'll have to build a portal."

Jessica steps up. "Wait a second. You expect us to build a column like this thing?"

"Actually, no," C.J. replies, "this thing knew how to contact the digivices. We build a cement building around you, you'll sit there staring at each other. My theory is the first time you got slingshot to the DigiWorld, the digivices invoked an autonomous portal call."

"English…" Anna sings.

"Like AutoPlay on your computer," I clarify, "you put a disk in the drive, and the computer automatically runs it."

"Even if we could invoke a call to the digivice, I find All-Black-And-Evil's method rather primitive. I'm mean, it's not like I've researched this, but interdimensional teleportation might be rather callous."

Anna clears her throat. C.J. repeats the word "slingshot."

"If we could get a controlled dialogue to the digivices, we might be able to set the parameters for, uh, sending you there."

Matt looks at his green digivice skeptically, "And who speaks D-3?"

C.J., pulls out my blue-green digivice, looking at the base, "If we lucky, I think we can simply Plug-and-Play it," indicating an electrical jack on the bottom of the device.

I smile, then I feels somebody tapping my shoulder, and a soft voice saying, "Um…"

It's the girl I saved on stage. She's a pretty girl, petite and with dusty, disheveled hair. I see the remnants of once-good make-up job on her face. "I would, uh," she begins, nervous and a little shaky, "like you for… saving me back there. I appreciate it." She gives me a forced smile.

Taken aback, I mumble back, "Uh, no problem. All part of the job I guess," I say with probably a complete lack of confidence."

She turns her eyes to Matt, who looks back, "And my friend would like to thank you, too." Matt gives her a confused look. She clarifies, "Red hair. A little taller than me."

Matt nods, "Oh, yeah, tell her she's welcome."

I comment, "I thought you'd be running away in a panic by now,."

She smiles, "Oh, yeah. I'll be all over that in a second. Trust me. But I just had to get the thank- you in."

"Well, thank you…"

"Halley," she states, "Halley DeMallora. Again, thank you."

With this she runs off.

C.J. nudges me in the ribs, giving me a coy smile afterwards.

: : :

The group looks outside. It's still deserted, but numerous sirens can be heard in the background. Phillip remarks, "We'll never get anywhere without being questioned by the cops." Sure enough, a cop car drives down a nearby street, at around ten miles per hour, likely scanning for injuries. And a building with an entire wall destroyed is rather conspicuous, especially with eleven teenagers, a toddler, and several small animals, a few not earthly, standing in the void.

"I doubt they'll see us," comments Jessica, as a police car turns onto the street. Distracted by Jessica's comment, we freeze instead of trying to hide. The car slows to a stop in front of the building, twenty feet from where we're standing.

"Damn, Jerry, look at that," a police officer steps out the car.

"Whole wall's blasted out. We'd better check for survivors."

I turn to Jessica. Her milky eyes tell me why the police have failed to notice us. I motion to Matt and Daniel to carry Jessica, and we move in mass away from the building as the police approach us, looking right through us. _So this is what it's like to be invisible._

It's a short walk across the knoll, but it takes forever. We see that the monster seems to have left quite a bit of destruction in his pass. The roadway from which he erupted is beyond repair, nothing but an even pile of furniture-sized chunks of asphalt. The eruption caused a multi-car wreck and, of course, is swarmed with police and the fire department. I don't see any ambulances.

Feeling it safe to talk, Phillip finally says something, "Where're we going?"

"I got an idea," states Matt. "Follow my lead." Since he's carrying Jessica, this is easier said than done, but we finally arrive…

"Wal-Mart?" James is in utter disbelief. "Why?"

"It's deserted. All of Atlanta's left en masse. It's got computers and probably the wires we need."

"And supplies," Justine notes.

It's yet to occur to us that if we are going to take a trip to the DigiWorld, it wouldn't be a bad idea to stock up. In fact, it's nearly necessary.

"C.J., here's my digivice." Matt hands him the green-paneled apparatus. "Do what you can."

"I'm on it," he states, but there's definite uncertainty in his voice.

: : :

The backpack on my pack is heavy. James and Matt decided to take the initiative to plan our packing. Being in Wal-Mart, we have unlimited access to water, non-perishable food items, flashlights, and so on. _You gotta love Boy Scouts._

In addition, I brought along a laptop. I tipped C.J. off about trying to use a computer to open a digital interdimensional gateway. He said he'd thought of that and agreed. And I though Eric was a little off-kilter.

I dropped the filled book bag to the ground. Somehow, I'd managed to pack a notebook and other trinkets. C.J., between the soda pop aisle and the bagged chips aisle near the back of the store, has set up an elaborate computer network of three laptops hooked up to each other by long hanging cords. There's also a small vertical tower machine of some sort plugged in and running.

"Well, I've had quite a field day. Your digivices as you call them actually have a lot of data stored into them. Once I hooked them up, I was able to reformat them to a regular operating system. Boy, was that a surprise." It's not for all of us.

"The digivices have a full anatomical scan of your bodies in them and I think that's what they use to grab you and pull you through the gate. All of them had the DigiPort program ready to be transferred, and I've got them on these computers. I've set it up so that all three computers will open the gate at the same time, grab you, and send you to the DigiWorld without any of them crashing, which could be fatal. But other than that, no worries!" He adds to the end, but we're all pretty speechless.

Anna, who seems still processing C.J.'s spiel, "Go back to that part about full anatomical scans…"

"Yeah, the scan did include a visual model. And, yes, because clothes are variable, default was none. I started with Matt's, so, unfortunately, I knew better than to look at the rest of them."

Justine catches it, "Unfortunately?"

"Fortunately, I mean," C.J. replies, his cheeks understandably red, "and just so you don't have to ask, I didn't download them. The entire digivice was locked."

There is a long silence, "What's that?" I ask, referring to the small machine on the ground.

"Oh, it's an ionizer. You put it into hotel rooms to help sanitize them. I though it would help make the portal easier to materialize." He pauses for a moment, then, "Shall I fire them up?"

: : :

A/N: Okay, these last few chapters have been rather drawn out, but it's about to get crazy. So, hang in there. Just be glad I'm actually starting to post the ones I have, 'cause as the time of writing this, I'm so behind in posting.

(Sonriso) - Wait a second, you're telling me that all they needed was a computer to create the DigiPort. Where were they during Season 2?


	7. No Sooner

The Fate of the World: No Sooner

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon___

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: Lift-off and landing in a familiar place. Now what?

A/N: Now begins Section 2 of The Fate of the World. Expect new twists and untwists. Expect this story to be finished months before I get around to posting it. Expect delays. Expect the expected, or the unexpected if you're really naïve.

Chapter 7: No Sooner

"Ready?" Matt asks. We nod in more of an I-guess way than a yes-we-are way. Truthfully, we're about to embark on one of the greatest and most dangerous journeys of our lives. _Give me a second to catch my breath._

_Amen to that_, I hear a voice reply in my head. I turn my head and see Jessica turning hers, donning a similar bemused expression. We seem to be having a lot of those lately. The voice sounded a lot like Jessica's.

James looks at the computer screens, idling displaying a dialog box with several lines of numbers in a text area. "So, how do you work it?"

"I'm not sure…," CJ begins, but Eric cuts him off.

"Like this," he pulls out his gray digivice and holds it up to the screen confidently, "DigiPort Open!" An empty section of the dialog box which takes most of the area turns from inactive gray to glowing yellow as a beam of light emits from Eric's digivice, which causes all three screens to emit lights bright enough to make the large overhead florescent lights above look turned off. Eric is engulfed in energy, which shoots to the middle screen, and Eric is gone.

: : :

It's almost anticlimactic. "Just like on the show," I comment. It reflects against a void. The computer screen now shows the formerly inactive section of the dialog box

Daniel exhales, "Alright, suit up. If anything, we gotta save Eric from himself." He, James, and Matt line up and hold out their digivices, and they too disappear. Phillip follows them, then Anna and Justine holding on to each other, which eyes closed. I pick up White Paws and Jessica grabs Virginia, who has been handed her digivice, and the light engulfs us.

: : :

I don't know quite how to describe the teleportation. The light engulfs us, a feeling I'm quite used to at this point. It's not hot, but tingly, inside and out. I feel suspended, but from all directions. Quite suddenly, I feel rapid movement, as if I'm being pulled at a high velocity in some direction. It's almost as if I'm moving inward into myself and forward at the same time. _This must be the new dimensional spacial direction CJ was talking about._

Then, as quickly as it began, I feel normal feelings returning. The movement ceases, and I experience the most absurd instance of inertia. I feel gravity again, and I'm standing on earthly ground again. The tingling fades, as does the yellow energy, much slower than it overtook me. And I'm in the DigiWorld again, to be perfectly blunt.

The scene I land in is far from quiet. Eric is celebrating, oblivious to anything around him. James, Matt, and Daniel are talking, interrupted by Anna screaming at them and Eric back and forth. Diana arrives after us, and walks up to me and Jessica, who's still holding Virginia, wiggling to be free. Katmondu is already trotting around, uncomfortable in the chaos. It's not loud, but everything is in terrible disarray. There's a terrible lack of orientation.

_For goodness' sake_, I think, _how are we supposed to save the world when we're fighting. Why are we fighting?_

_I wish I knew_, I hear Jessica's voice in my head. Again, I look to her, and she looks back. One finger is in her right ear, trying to cancel out the noise of the arguing.

Up to this point, the arguing created a mummer that went sharp to dull several times a second, but it was suddenly drowned out by a monstrous growl, like might be heard by a large tiger… a very large tiger. All heads turn toward the east to see an oversized ice-blue-and-white tiger, the Defender.

"Fuzzy!" I yell at him, "what is it?"

"You're gonna pay for that fuzzy remark, pitiful Unmon," the creature answers. The Defender doesn't talk. Even that accompanying voice when Katmondu transformed for the first time did sound like this. His mouth didn't move then. It does now.

"What do you know? It looks like that viral thing brought a welcoming committee of converted Unmons."

"Unmons?" Jessica whispers.

"I don't know. Never heard of them."

"Stop conspiring!" the tiger screams at us, "You will not help that… thing destroy the DigiWorld!"

"Destroy the DigiWorld?" Matt replies, a little too cool, "We came here to save it. Against the 'thing.' Black blob? Yeah, we're here to exterminate it."

"Lies! You doubt my ability to feel its presence. You know very well that its composition can't be reformed into our world. It has integrated itself. It is imperceptible to the physical senses. Or did you not have enough faith in the digimon to know that we could tell?" The enormous tiger paces. It's very much the size of the Defender, in fact a replica almost. I find myself thinking that this is his evil clone, but I doubt this for some reason.

The tiger continues to pace back and forth, surveying his prey. As I look all around me, I notice no cowards. We all stand in a semicircle, staring down the beast. The tiger speaks again, "I suppose you're waiting for me to attack. You still think me too dumb to know that I can see through your lies. You think I'll go along with your charade. Wrong."

The tiger halt, turns toward Jessica and I, crouches, and before I have time to react after his hypnotizing pacing, he's leapt toward us. I step back to absorb the blow, which would have been foolish, had not Katmondu, in Defender form, leapt from the grass, knocking his twin off-course.

"Foolish IceFelismon! Why do you attack your own kind?" the belligerent digimon asks Katmondu. The Defender, of course, only growls.

"It pains me to see you have joined the Dark Side." The Defender, in quite cat-like behavior, only paces, never taking his eyes off IceFelismon, which I conclude is his name and digimon type. As Katmondu turns once again, his digivice catches IceFelismon's eye. He crouches and growls at this, "A digivice! Did you have to kill a DigiDestined to get that?"

"He is a DigiDestined," I tell him, surprised at my own bravery. I'm not even in Caretaker from. I noticed none of us, minus Katmondu, have powered up.

"You still insult my intelligence. DigiDestined are revered here. All digimon know that DigiDestined appear like Unmons."

"What are Unmon?" Jessica asks.

IceFelismon looks at her, his face bored, but his body still taut, "Like yourself. Two-legged, uneven fur, artificial coverings…"

Phillip, his inner digifan coming through, states, "Hey, don't a bunch of digimon have clothes and junk. Gabumon wear fur, for example."

I figure this might be Phillip's last moment, but IceFelismon just stares him down, accepting Phillip's counterpoint. "True, clever Unmon."

"Wait, were the DigiDestined Unmons?" Daniel inquires.

"Is this some type of stalling technique? I'm beginning to think this might not be a façade." He takes a long moment scrutinizing the situation, then replies, "No. They were humans, I think they're called. From the Other World."

James steps forward, with courage, "The Other World? We're from another world. And we're human. And we're DigiDestined."

"I doubt it strongly. There have been no DigiDestined in the DigiWorld since the Schism. Many prophesies foretell new heroes, but they are wrong."

Daniel takes a half step forward, delicately, "Wrong? I thought the ideas of prophecies were that they came true, even if in a strange way."

The tiger crouches down and stares into the distance, "I'm afraid not. A prophecy not long ago began to come true. The signs were there. The Unmon scholars announced a new salvation was to come." His tone is pained, "I was to be one of the DigiDestined's partners. From birth, I was told someday I would meet him and we would save the world. Well, the evil has come, and I'm holding up my half of the prophecy. I'm trying to save the DigiWorld, but where's my partner? He should have been here years ago."

"How do you know he hasn't been here?" I prompt, "He could have come, suited up, banners waving, sword drawn, and you could have killed him, thinking he was the enemy."

"I would know. The Great Digimon said that they knew when their partner was upon them, innately, instinctively. There would be a sign."

The Defender jumps IceFelismon, and the two wrestle on the ground. The Crest of Vigor starts glowing, gaining luminance, and blinding us all. "What in—" IceFelismon begins to say when both are engulfed with light. They shrink and the light leaves them as powered-down Katmondu and a small Salamon, completely off-white, with floppy cat-like ears and toeless paws. "You're my DigiDestined," the now squeaky voice asks.

Katmondu rubs his head against Salamon's flank, and looks at him curiously. "But he's not… human, is he?"

I kneel down to the Salamon. "No, he's not a human. He's a cat."

"He's my size."

"Yeah" is all I can muster.

"Are cats as good as humans?" the Salamon questions.

"Well, humans have a better sense of logic and problem solving, but cats are descendants of the fiercest animals on the planet. Humans are far separated from our instincts. Cats are well-tuned and have fewer things to fear in general."

Salamon now jumps Katmondu and they spar.

Jessica comes up on me, "Katmondu has a digimon now."

"I know," I reply.

"Will we get digimon?"

"You ask me like I know," I look over to Justine, but she shrugs her shoulders. I took to Jessica again, "Maybe."

: : :

Diana stares at Christopher and Jessica with a displeased look on her face. She notes the crest hanging on Katmondu's neck as he play-fights with his new companion, looking down at the ever-astute Hawkmon standing loyally by her side.

: : :

By the light of the fire, Salamon tells us tales of the prophecies and other legends of famous digimon.

Matt's face is stern as he comments, "You're telling us that the evil thing is immaterial in this world, but you can still sense him?" Salamon nods with a maturity unbefitting of his size.

James speaks up, "Now, going back to the big prophecy you were talking about. Did it say who was supposed to have digimon and who was supposed to have Crests of Power?" I notice Diana sit up at this question.

Salamon sighs, "I'm afraid I don't know the prophecy word for word. My impression from all the buzz surrounding it was that all of them would have digimon. On the matter of Crests of Power, that was not a project of the Unmons. They are the ones who help pair up digimon with Other World heroes and who harness the power of the Crests, but the Crests' ability to transform humans and give them fighting power was either something the Unmons didn't know about themselves or something they didn't announce."

Justine muses, "These Unmons, do they have control over the DigiWorld or something?"

Salamon laughs, which sounds like a childish giggle, "No. They are not as… durable as digimon. However, they have been studying digimon for eons, and are extremely benevolent. They are the Keepers of the Prophecies as well, all of them literate."

Daniel smiles, "Literate? You have writing?"

"Yeah," Salamon answers sarcastically, "of course we have writing. How else would we have prophecies? Unmons train each other in the Digital World's writing, called DigiCode. It's a colloquial name. DigiCode's the world standard, so it's to keep from just calling it writing. I heard it that I resembles the writing standard of the Great DigiDestined."

Phillip asks, "Japanese?"

"Sounds right," replies Salamon.

Justines perks up, "I lived in Japan for a couple of years. You wouldn't happen to have an example of it?"

Salamon frowns, "Not on me. We're in one of the Non-Civilization areas, but if you come upon a building or something, you'll see some. I doubt you could read it. It's been said that it only resembles this Japanese. I honestly can't say if any DigiDestined took the time to learn the language."

I see Diana rubbing her temple, and ask her about it. She tells me that it's no big deal, just a headache. Jessica comments about the med kit in her bag, and Diana accepts some pain reliever. Jessica pulls a couple of ibuprofen out and tosses them to Diana, who holds out her hand.

The pills don't reach her hand. She suddenly leans forward, her, eyes clenched shut, and groaning. She opens her eyes widely, almost as if possessed and starts mumbling to herself. She then yells something somewhat coherent. "Pen and paper!" is all she says, repeating in several times in a demanding way.

I toss her my notebook and James tosses her a mechanical pencil out of his pocket. Still intent on her thoughts, she violently pushes pages aside to a black page and clicks the pencil twice before madly scribbling on the page, mumbling under her breath as she goes.

When she finishes, she drops the pen and breathes as if exhausted, holding the notebook by her side. When she seems to regain her breath, she looks at the page, her eyes following the lines. She mouths the words as she goes. The entire time, showing a variety of emotions, none of them giving any indication that she knows what she has just written with such fury.

She passes it to Jessica and I, then asks, "What do you think of it?"

: : :

A/N: From here on out, you're in for some lengthy delays. I have a lot of important stuff on the board. I have no idea how many chapters this is going to be, but it's turning out to be quite a few if I'm on Chapter 7 and we're only now in the DigiWorld. The first few chapters were rather short, but they'll be getting longer as I go. I have this strange tendency to write stories that are much to long for a short story, but inadequate for a novella or a novel. I'm not a professional writer, so what I really need to do is put more into each chapter. I think once we get multiple plotlines going, it'll bulk up. I'm so excited!

(Sonriso) - Longer? Longer? Creedog, people are going to get tired of having to read so much before they get to me! I mean, you're a nice writer and all, but people really respond to my superior comedy chops. I won't be able to keep this boat afloat if you keep weighing it town with your plotlines and character development. Snappy, half-wit wisecracks is what the public is demanding.


	8. Præsagio

The Fate of the World: Præsagio

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The strange prophecy is revealed and the DigiDestined must invent a plan of action.

A/N: Don't worry about so many chapters.  For some reasons, these stories are coming out bite-sized.  I'll try to keep it under twenty chapters, but no promises.

Chapter 8: Præsagio

"The Darkness shall come to build his new lair

Corrupting the earth, the seas, and the air,

And the faith of the creatures will grow weak,

Till the coming of the Warriors of Light,

To Find the Treasures of Power they seek,

For they shall foretell the Ultimate Fight.

The Scribe with the Stylus of Negoti,

The Caretaker with the Key of Perspio

The Defender with the Torch of Adyun,

The Sister with the Mallet of Solesze,

The Cavalier with the Scepter of Coryf,

The Magistrate with the Scroll of Decatta,

The Champion with the Emblem of Corolla,

The Inquirer with the Shield of Procurare,

The Sanguine with Tear of Nitorio,

The Patron with the Horn of Oradisque,

The Unnamed with the Force of Parkamen,

The Angel with the Kiss of Virago.

Each destiny must be fulfilled,

Or the sun shall never again shine,

The Cave of Destiny must be renewed,

The Secret of Matter must be revealed,

The Stage of Battle must be set,

The Light of Loves must shine,

And the Symbol of Symbols must be complete:

Two Triads and Two Partners, One Bridge and One Cross

Protect the Light Crest and the Dark Crest.

All must come to know their others,

For their time together will be short,

And yet, the World shall be saved…

by a Lie, a Sin, a War, and a Redemption."

Diana asks us, "What do you think of it?"

"Prophecy, as far as I can tell," I comment.  "What…?"

"Happened?" she finished, "I don't know.  I suddenly had this irresistible urge to write.  Worse than normal, I'm telling you.  It just came to me."

Daniel smiles, "Happens a lot in the DigiWorld; you'll get used to it.  Eh, Justine?"

Justine mumbles, "Yeah,"

Matt looks over my shoulder, "We're named in it.  All of us, and three others: the Cavalier, the Scribe, and the… Unnamed?"  He looks at Diana.

"Don't look at me.  I didn't know any more what I was writing that what Jessica sees during her visions."

Eric laughs, "Unnamed?  That's me!  Remember the letter?  I'm a Named DigiDestined.  Whoa, serious irony there," Eric comments, in his usual unserious attitude.

I chuckle, "Strange…  In the prophecy, we're all supposed to have something."

Diana peers at the prophecy again, "The Stylus of Negoti, the Key of Perspio, the Torch of Adyun, and so on."

Daniel comments, "What got my attention is 'their time together will be short…'  Kinda ominous if you ask me."

James shakes his head, "When are prophecies not ominous?"

"Two triads and two partners, a cross and a bridge protect the Light and Dark Crest…" Diana quotes pensively, "The formation!"  At this, she walks over to a rock wall and starts scratching lines into it. 

James asks, "Diana, what are you drawing?"

She looks over, "Jessica, Christopher, you remember that vision you had of animals in formation?  The bear, the snake, and falcon were out here, and the panther, the fox, and the tiger were here," she says, pointing at the three points of two concentric triangles.

"…the two triads.  Then," she continues, "we have the parrot and the nightingale here," she says, drawing two connected points horizontally over the inner triangle.  "…the two partners.  We have a bridge, which was the Patron," she draws a vertical line through a dot connecting the two triangles by their bases.  "We have the light and dark crests inside, which were the angel and the spider; those must represent the Light and Dark crests.  All we have left is the cross, which was the…" she stops mid-sentence, pointing toward a dot above the horizontal line.  "Jessica, what was it, the animal I'm missing?"

Jessica, still taken aback by Diana's knowledge of her vision, tries to recall the animal, but comes up blank.  "I don't know.  It's the one thing I didn't remember."

Diana makes two perpendicular lines through the last point.  "I think this is the Symbol of Symbols."

Christopher's eyes widen, "Wait a second, we have a panther, a fox, and a tiger in the inner triad, which could be Tobalmon, Aneramon, and IceFelismon.  In the outer triad, we have a bear, a snake, and a falcon.  The falcon might be Aquilamon, the digivolved form of Hawkmon, or it could be Spiremon."

Salamon suddenly speaks from behind the crowd, "The Outer Triad?  I wonder if…"

Delcomon, from James's side, comments, "The Outer Triad is also the name of the three powerful digimon who protect the Cave of Destiny."

Hawkmon chuckles, "Even more ironic, the quest of an Aneramon… was to locate these three digimon because the current three ceded their positions.  Powerful forces were then threatening the DigiWorld, and they feared that stronger guards were needed."

Matt muses, "Any chance these digimon are a bear, a snake, and falcon?"

Salamon lowers his head, "It is not known.  The Outer Triad has an attack-first, ask-questions-later kind of attitude.  The Cave of Destiny is very delicate and has a lot of potential power.  They can't take any chances that it falls into the wrong hands."

James remarks, "It says it must be renewed.  How do you renew it?"

Delcomon sighs, "Well, you'd have to get in first.  From there you can't go wrong, I suppose.  But again, you have to get in, and that means facing three powerful digimon in sequence."

"Or concurrently," Matt observes.

Eric laughs, "We're the DigiDestined; does that not account for anything?  That prophecy says we're supposed to open the cave.  And, by golly, I think we will."

Justine, who is reading the prophecy for herself, notes, "It says we have to reveal the Secret of Matter, set the Stage of Battle, shine the Light of Loves, and complete the Symbol of Symbols."

"Didn't I just complete the Symbol of Symbols?" Diana asks, pointing towards the rock where she's scratched the emblem on the rock wall.

"No," Justine says, mindlessly.  Diana gets a "How'd you…?" out before Justine raises her arms to indicate it was a premonition.

"Then…" Diana begins, "we have to fulfill these obligations.  These items we're supposed to have.  I guess they're metaphoric or it looks like we're going on a treasure hunt."

James prompts, "Did any of those names seem familiar, like they were place names in the DigiWorld?"  The four digimon answer in the negative.  James looks over at the prophecy again, but it's decorous. 

_'So, Scribe; you think you're on to something?'_

"Did you guys hear that?" Diana asks, looking around.

A/N: And the endless cliffhangers begin.  Man, I feel like a writer for _Alias_.  Okay, okay, stop cheering.  For goodness sake.  I don't care how good the finale was.  Anyway, check to see if I've published either "Bearing Caroline" or "Shooting Star," because there such mature works and I've really yet to bring this series up to par with them.  Read them, they are Creedog at his best, maybe not plot-wise, but definitely style-wise.

- Are you kidding me?  Sonriso does not even appear in those works!  How can Creedog showcase works where the incredible and talented Sonriso is not even mentioned?  Well, he does make a cameo appearance in Creedog's newer series, tentatively titled "Extraordinaire."


	9. Torrent of Air

The Fate of the World: Torrent of Air

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The Scribe gets her power and the tasks of the DigiDestined become revealed.  It may mean doing something unwise.

A/N: I know what it looks like.  It looks like I'm reverting to writing a chapter for The Powers Within, but I promise, it will involve more than that.

Chapter 9: Torrent of Air

"Did anybody else hear that?" Diana asks quietly.

A silence suddenly falls on the group.  Daniel asks her if she heard a voice and replies that she did.  The entire group becomes paranoid.  When Diana asks about this, Daniel replies, "Hearing a voice could mean that you're getting your power."

"That's not a good thing?" Diana asks, a surprised smile growing on her face.

"Getting a power is good, I suppose.  But the voice usually foretells an attack.  When we got our powers, the people around us were usually weak from getting our powers.  We're full-strength for right now, so we're here if you need any help.  The reasons we're so preoccupied is these monsters sometimes like to make a dramatic entrance.  Usually auras protect us from harm, but we can't promise you the same thing.  Twelve is a good size for the danger we may face."

Diana just nods.

_'Oh, come on!  Like they'll really protect you!  You've been sneaking around for weeks, hiding yourself, and they're suddenly gonna let you in like one of the pack?'_

"Is it supposed to sound like you?" Diana asks, annoyed.

Christopher raises his eyebrows, "Like you?  It sounds like your own voice?"  When Diana nods, Christopher says, "Strange.  In our cases, it was the voice of a digimon.  But whatever you do, don't believe it; it's just trying to dampen your spirits."

: : :

"Am I?" a voice exactly like Diana's speaks.

As a whole, we turn toward the rock, where a very content Diana look-alike stands, giving us a bored look.  "Wow, Scribe, you've got the whole gang here.  I have to admit; it's going to be quite a challenge for me to kill you.

Diana gulps, which I think is the last thing she should have done.

The clone continues, "Anyway, we'll get to the fighting in a minute.  Just for starters, I'd like to attack the leader of this little renegade militia.  By the way, who is that?"  There is a confused silence, which the clone laughs at, "I thought so.  So, Scribe, which one would you like for me to take out first?  The young one?  Or the cat?  You'd like that wouldn't you.  Or the Caretaker… you seem chummy with him."  Diana confidently steps forward, but I comment to her, "Wait a second…"

The clone interrupts me, "Oh, brave Caretaker, you haven't filled her in yet, have you?  Maybe it's because she's been sneaking around for the last few weeks spying on you."  Diana closes her eyes, "'Course, you're quite a sadist anyway, Caretaker, you let that Stuart kid you hate just burn to a crisp in that fire."  I lose a lot of strength with that punch.

Diana's clone continues, "Oh, goody, this is a load of fun.  You know, for being called the Libeler, I don't have to make up a lot of dirt.  It's just there to dig up."

At this, Matt throws a punch, which the Libeler dodges and quickly returns.  She's too slow for me though, as time slows down and I cleanly break her wrist in one fluid motion.  I see Diana grimace and kick myself for not warning her.

The Libeler screams, "Contusion of Air!", but the hurricane-strength gust of air hits an oak tree, which is ripped from it roots, but topples backwards toward the Libeler, who it narrowly missed, though the mass of leaves knocks her to the ground.  Diana yelps and I run over to her, passing the white-eyed Jessica, thanking God for her talent.  I whisper to Diana the problem when one's evil self and she nods.  I look up and feel sadness for Diana.  The rest of the group, minus Katmondu and Virginia have ganged up on the Libeler and have started to beat her pretty badly.

"Wait!" cries Diana from my side.  "I'd like to clear up a few things."  She walks over to the badly-beaten Libeler, grabs her face, and pulls it up to her own.  "Yes, I have been spying on the group.  So sue me.  As for Stuart, I am certain it was an accident.  And let me let you in on a little secret.  There's more to the story than anyone knows."

This is a level of aggression I've never seen in Diana.  I smile as the glint of a golden-yellow aura reflects around her.  As she stops speaking, a similar yellow light engulfs her and leaves her, leaving her in a long goldenrod-colored gown, form-fitting, but not skintight.  The long sleeves reach down her arms and end with a loop around her thumb, but with excess hanging down.  The dress reaches all the way down, swelling at the ankles, her feet hidden, but as she stands, I see that is elastic.

"Unfortunately, Libeler, you're messing with the Scribe.  Torrent of Air!"

A strong wind throws us all back and presses the Libeler against the rock, which causes her head to slam against the rock.  Both the Scribe and the Libeler fall unconscious, the Scribe's aura turning her back to normal, all damage healed.  At this, Hawkmon walks up to the Libeler and presses hard against the Libeler's abdomen with on wing and grabbing both her nose and mouth with the other.  She presses hard against her midsection and she soon disappears.

: : :

Diana rouses awake, seeing the late afternoon sun nearing the horizon.

She looks up and sees fifteen pairs of eyes kneeled down watching her.  "Hey, guys, so I've got a power now?"

There are various nods of agreement.  James asks, "How do you feel?"

"Sore," she begins, "you guys really had some mob mentality going on back there," she jokes.

Matt turns to James, "Well, man, it looks like you're the Cavalier,"

James beams, "The Cavalier.  It has a nice ring to it."

Diana interrupts, "Wait a second, I get my power and defeat my evil twin in a single battle and James is the one that gets congratulated?"  General laughter ensues.  She suddenly gets an epiphany face on.  "So, what do I look like?"

James replies, "Long blond hair."

Daniel adds, "A bit on the short side, but that's coming from me."  As expected, Diana tilts her head.

Anna smiles, "Yellow tress of hair.  And your eyes are yellow." 

Diana looks at the tress, which is the first tress on her right side, and comments, "This is… goldenrod, a totally unnatural color."  She flips it aside with mock disgust, looking at my turquoise widow's peak, Jessica's purple tress, Matt's leaf green lock, and the silver strands that appear among Phillip's brown hair.

Christopher, catching on, asks, "So, Miss Diana, what's going on with you?"

"I am the Scribe."

: : :

I smile at her response, "True, which reminds me, we've still got a prophecy to decipher."

Diana looks at the prophecy again, pulls a pen out of her pocket, and flips the sheet over, pensively looking at the blank page.  Then, she touches her collarbone with her other hand, as if she was having trouble breathing.  Jessica emits a low, pained groan, before falling to her knees.

Recognizing the symptoms of an oncoming vision, we surround her for support, except for Diana, who scribbles wildly again.  I look at both girls, trying to comprehend this turn of events. 

Jessica's eyes open, "I saw a creature.  A big lion, walking upright.  He had a sword."

Eric and Phillip, in unison, say, "Leomon."  Eric continues, "He's a good guy."

"He was running full-speed into the forest surrounding a cave."

"The Cave of Destiny," mentions Justine assuredly.  When she gets looks, she says, "Trust me," with a smirk.

"I think he was going to attack the guards," Jessica states.

Eric muses, "That doesn't sound like Leomon.  Wait, were his eyes glowing black?"  Jessica nods.  He continues, "You think Devimon's got him again like he did on File Island?"

I close my eyes, almost embarrassed that I know what he's talking about.

"We destroyed Devimon," Matt replies.  "Twice," he adds.

"He said he was coming back," I reply, "and he may have found some company to help him."

"You think Skullface-'n'-Gooey is behind this?" James asks.  I nod, as does Justine, securing the fact.

Justine speaks again, "If you'll look at Diana's map, you'll see where we need to go,"

"Her map?" I question.  Diana holds up a map she drawn on a piece of paper.  It doesn't look hand drawn; it looks like she traced the lines from an old treasure map perfectly.

Justine continues as Anna smiles at her, "It's on the continent of Interface, near the coast of Nexus.  That's where the Cave of Destiny is."

Daniel smiles, "Well, we better get a move on.  We've got a fight to break up."  Jessica shakes her head, stating that her vision must have been a premonition, that the sun was not so low in the sky.  Daniel points out that it could have taken place tomorrow, so we still have to get there.  This time Justine refuses.

Jessica grimaces as she closes her eyes again.  "She's right," she states when the vision is over.  "The evil in this world has corrupted more than this Leomon guy.  In fact, there are other places that DigiDestined are needed.  There's this huge plain that's a hotbed of evil.  There's this rocky cove where something bad is swimming around.  And we got something in the valley that needs to be taken care of."

Matt sighs, "Well, we'll go after it one by one.  How far away are they, Justine?"

"Far," she replies, disappointedly looking at Diana's map, "The Cave of Destiny is on another continent, due east by northeast.  The plain is a day's journey west.  Cove is south of here, all the way down.  It'll take at least a day to get there.  The valley is closer, about fifty miles north.  We landed in the worst possible spot."

Salamon replies indignantly, "You landed on top of me!  I'd say that's good aiming."

A gust of wind blows, catching all of our hair.  Anna's red hair contrasts nicely with the red sky.  I comment, "It's dusk.  We'll never make it to any of these places if we leave tonight.  It'll be dark too soon."

Daniel insists we camp and leave first thing in the morning.  When Matt asks to which places, Daniel replies, "All of them.  We're gonna have to split up."

: : :

A/N: Okay, now we're moving!  I'm amazed at far along I'm getting.  I may just finish this series.  Hang in there.  I think it's going to get good.

(Sonriso) - Well, duh.  Sonriso is going to be presenting his witty comments.  Okay, I can't think of anything.  How 'bout a spoiler?  The Herald of Sarcasm saves the day.  No, really, he does!


	10. Journeys

The Fate of the World: Journeys

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The group is faced with the inevitability of splitting up.

A/N: Okay, from here on out, you're gonna have to pay attention because I'm going to be working with at least four separate stories lines.  Or maybe I should be paying attention, because I'm writing them all.  They might even have to intertwine.  Wish me luck.

Chapter 10: Journeys

"They're gone?!  How did this happen?" the general yells gruffly.

"A fire broke out at the school.  The cafeteria collapsed after only four minutes.  We had agents on the scene immediately.  They saw something and called for haz-mat team.  The two agents had fifty parts per million in their blood after fifteen minutes on site.  This stuff powerful and it was in the air."

"If the stuff is in Raymond, how did it already get to Atlas?"

"Either the wind took it there or there was a second package.  Now they're gone."

"They're not gone.  They're somewhere, probably lying on the ground and the chemical prevents us from seeing them."

"All of them?"

"The chemical had some effect on the tracers.  They were moving toward Atlas when the signals finally died out."

"Then get a team there.  And tell the lab to get working on the Antihistamine project or we're as lost as the rest of the world."

: : :

"We're gonna have to split up," Daniel states gravely.

Matt replies, "No way.  We're strong as a team.  I'd like to keep it that way."

Daniel shoots back, "What is all this is happening tomorrow?  Stuff is going down fast and we don't have time to bully our way through it.  By the time we get to the last spot, we may be too late."

Matt huffs, "What are the chances of that?"

Justine sighs, "He's right.  There's not way we'll get everywhere in time.  The monster is taking over things fast.  We won't have more than a few days."  Every from there is silent.

Anna looks over, "You're getting a lot of stuff lately, Justine."

Justine shrugs her shoulders, "I always get a lot.  Most of it I can ignore.  Lately, though, I've been getting lots of C-SPAN and not much MTV."

"We're not going in by ourselves.  There were what?  Four places that needed attention?" she asks.  Justine and Jessica nod in unison.  "Four teams then.  We'll split up in the morning.  It's getting dark."

The sky continues to darken, and I volunteer for the first watch.  As a fire is built and my friends go to sleep, I pull out my "borrowed" laptop and fiddle around.  For the most part, it's eerily quiet.  The crackle of the fire, some soft groans from Justine, and some quick breaths by who I believe is Jessica, and the hum of my laptop is all the noises I hear.  It's disturbing not having any crickets in the background.  I don't get very far with my fiddling on the computer, because already several serious error messages have appeared on screen concerning the operating system.  After it spits out technobabble for several minutes, the screen goes black, and a single word flashes on and off on the screen: REFORMATTING.  This lasts only a few seconds, and the desktop screen comes up, almost instantly. 

I study the screen.  It appears normal, but an icon is flashing on the taskbar.  I click the icon, which resembles two computers, one overlaid on the other.  A Command Prompt-like window comes up, with the words "Affirming Network Connection."  I roll my eyes.  There's no network connection, but suddenly several lines of text appear.  I read them; it's ten lines of random numbers and letters, except for the bottom line; it reads ORPHEUS8.  I tried to click on the name, but soon realize that I have an inadequate window for that.  I scroll down with the arrow keys and press enter.  A new window pops up, with "Orpheus8" in the header.  It features several buttons, including one stating "CHAT."  I double-click it, wondering what my computer is linked to without a cable. 

A primitive Instant Message program comes up.  I type something in and press enter.  Nothing happens.

: : :

C.J. lies on the oversized lawn chair, in the back aisles of Wal-Mart, drinking out of a summer-themed glass with the price label still attached and a plastic container of Raspberry Ice Tea instant powder mix by his side.  He's wearing audacious sunglasses with the price tag still attached to the nose rim.  A beeping wakes him up.  He reaches beside the chair and opens his backpack and pull out his laptop.  Opening it up, he finds a Microsoft InstaChat window displayed, which is strange because he doesn't have his wireless modem connected.  The name is a mess of numbers and letters.  It's almost as if it's an error message using the wrong program.  Regardless, he opens the window.  The message following the random character string states: "Hello?"

C.J. replies, confused.

: : :

Orpheus8 replies with a "Hello?" back.  I type something in, and then notice another blinking icon, this time of a microphone.  I click this and a window pops up.  "Huh?" I mumble, and an audio frequency indicator screen appears, vibrating with my voice.  "That's insane." I say to myself, and a text-editing program appears, having written, "That's in sane."

I click an arrow on the edge of the taskbar shortcut menu and a series of blinking icons flash in unison.  I click them in sequence and a myriad of windows pop up and most disappear.  One screen besides the IM program, the frequency indicator, and the text document stays: a hardware locator asking for a mouse.  I spin the laptop around and look at all the empty ports, seeing an empty microphone slot, an empty mouse slot, and other empty slots.  I pass my hand behind the slots.  There's nothing there.  Suddenly a chill goes up my arms as all the hairs stick up.  I look around and a mouse pointer appears on screen, moving autonomously.  I try to follow it with my hand, but it stops moving until I move it away.  Struck by inspiration, I shake my hand and the mouse shakes back and forth as well.  The window searching for a mouse is gone.  I move the mouse with my fingers in the air to the frequency indicator and the text editor and close both. 

In the IM box, Orpheus8 has typed something else: "Who's there?"

"Christopher" I reply and press enter.

"VanDrey?" appears on the screen, and I'm scared, until "Wicked!" appears to.

"CJ?" I ask.  "Yeah" is the reply.

"You're not going to believe what I can do with this laptop." I type.

: : :

The next morning I have a big surprise for the team.  Since each non-cat, non-toddler DigiDestined is equipped with a laptop in their backpack; we can communicate through Microsoft InstaChat with each other and with C.J.  In addition, each computer is now appropriately named for its owner.  After showing them how to use the new ghost hardware, I state how I realized since each computer has been formatted with our digivices, they all have a program installed that traces the homing beacon feature on the digivices, so that C.J. can locate us wherever we are and pass along vital information.  They are, needless to say, very impressed.  It doesn't last long.

The topic of who's going where and how we're going to divide arises.  Anna and Justine of course pair up.  I make the obvious point that Katmondu will be coming with me no matter who we assign him to.  Diana asks to be with me.  Jessica says she should go to the Cave of Destiny.  Matt and Daniel offer to join her.  James opts to go there, too.  Phillip and Eric want to the go the plain.  Eric even mentions that the "hotbed of evil" thing sounds like a lot of fun.  We don't argue with him.  Justine and Anna offer to take Virginia with them.  Though I feel responsible for her, I admit that they girls love caring for her with her as much as Diana and I do.  I warn them, unnecessarily, to take care of her.  They agree to check out the cove, leaving Diana and I to head for the valley.

And we're ready to go.  Sort of.  We're prepared to go.

: : :

Jessica, James, Daniel, and Matt ride out on Spiremon, who glides over the ocean and out of sight before we know it.

"Bye, J.J." I think, and hear her reply in my mind.  There's something to this, I think, but I'll worry about it later.

Eric and Phillip run off in the opposite direction as full speed, leaving a dust cloud in their path.

Anna and Justine glide off southward using their ability to fly.  Justine is of course the one holding Virginia, tightly in her arms.  In addition, she's carrying an overstuffed backpack with both hers and Anna's stuff in it, along with Virginia's diaper bag around her shoulder. 

Salamon somehow convinces Katmondu to transform, and I ride Katmondu while Arielle rides IceFelismon with Hawkmon in one arm.

I know where we're heading; I was able to use a picture editing program to scan Diana's map.  What I don't know is what we're going to do when we're there or what we're going find.  _But this is my destiny nonetheless._

: : :

A small fire dies away near a rock wall with a strange design drawn on it.  And one of the points, the one near the top of the design, not in the outer triad, but over the inner triad and the vertically connect points, the one with an equal-armed cross drawn through it, now glows.  The glowing originates from a tiny, yellow, glass sphere.

: : :

A/N: Okay, maybe these aren't turning out to be as long as I thought.  However, they'll get more action-packed as I get through them.  I want to warn you as standard as this story sounds, I want you to mind the twists.  I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.

(Sonriso) - Oh, you think you have tricks up your sleeve.  Wait till you see what I have up my sleeve.  Nothing!  I don't have sleeves!  That wasn't funny.  I think I'm losing my touch.


	11. Half the Trouble

The Fate of the World: Half the Trouble

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The journeys are not yet finished.  Getting there is at least half the trouble.

A/N: I think this is the chapter where things actually start happening.  Maybe it'll be the next one.  Then again, things could already be happening and I just don't know it.  Keep reading.

Chapter 11: Half the Trouble

I've never really appreciated how fast Katmondu could run.  Usually, I only notice when we play tag in the backyard, but now, as a much larger creature, it's truly phenomenal.  I estimate we're traveling at around thirty miles per hour, which in a car isn't that fast, but I've never been on a convertible nor have I ever gone that fast on a bike, but I'd expect the wind to be moving this quickly if I ever were.  Anyway, when we get there…

_Wait a second!  How do we know when we're there?_ I think.  _Okay, let's figure this out logically.  It's about fifty miles to the valley.  Well, the valley is a big place.  Well, I suppose we'll know when we get there.  It'll be downhill, then a flattening.  That's assuming that we need to be at the bottom of the valley.  Okay, so say it's exactly fifty miles from camp.  Well, if we're going thirty miles per hour, exactly, then it'll take us… an hour… and two-thirds… and forty minutes.  _I dare to look at my watch.  It's eight-seventeen.  _What time did we leave?  I don't remember.  We're lost!_

I'm nearly panicking now, when Diana motions for us to take a break.  _We can get our computers out.  Look at the map.  See how close we are.  We might even be able to predict our speed!  _It's amazing how things work out when you have a lot of confidence.

: : :

Jessica is glad for Spiremon's temperance when it comes to speed.  The continent of Interface happens to be over a small ocean, small being relative.  The coast was only five miles from the departure spot.  The ocean, if they read the map right, was well over two hundred miles across.  It wasn't fifteen minutes until Spiremon got over the ocean.  It wasn't even an hour when all sign of land disappeared.  _So basically_, Jessica figures, _we're over the freaking ocean.  Never better go wrong, or we're screwed._

Jessica couldn't argue with herself.  They'd been in the air quite some time, and even though Spiremon was gliding at a comfortable speed, they've been in the air for quite some time.  There would be no swimming back to the coast much less to Interface.  Jessica's power over mirages wouldn't do them any good.  Even her ability to mimic touch wasn't telekinesis.  Who knows how far down the ocean went?  Miles probably.  The chances of either Daniel or Matt creating a miniature island or life-saving tree before they ran out of energy and drowned were slim.  They couldn't swim forever.  And there was no Search and Rescue team that could save them, at least not in the DigiWorld. 

_What about James?_  With Diana receiving a power, and Eric named (_as the Unnamed, though_) in the prophecy, there was a good chance he had a power, too, but whether it was able to save them… whether he'd be able to call on it at all, was still extremely risky.  Jessica now questions why she even thinks about such things.  _What happened to having an optimistic attitude?_  She didn't want to shoot that down.

Something out of the corner of Jessica's eyes wakes her from her thoughts.  _It can't be.  God, don't let it be a…_  Sure enough, it was one of the black creature's gliders.  Yelling, she alerts the boy, "Guys, we've got a problem!"

Matt curses as he looks around him.  A small swarm of maybe six gliders is circling Spiremon on all sides.  "James, I can't fight with you all riding me.  And there's not really a lot of places I can drop you," Spiremon says in his eagle-like voice.

"Just hold steady," James tells him, who turns to his companions, "Guys?"

Matt replies, "Love to help you man, but we're not near enough to any flora for me to use.  Daniel's equally as screwed.  And all Jessica's got are mirages.  We didn't pack any firepower with us."

"Ascend!" Jessica screams, and Spiremon starts to rise up in the air.

Daniel calls, "What are you doing, Jessica?"

Jessica screams back, "I've got a mirage going," which is apparent since her eyes are now milky.  "But it won't be long until they realize it's a mirage.  They'll start crashing into it and I can't keep up the physical representation.  They'll start darting around madly when they figure it out and are bound to either hit us eventually.  I say get away as far as I can."  She doesn't say it, but mentally adds, _And__ should we fall, I want as long as possible so I can think of something._

Matt screams, "But what about the oxygen?"

Daniel inhales sharply and rolls of Spiremon and starts to fall straight down.  Jessica turns to get him, but Matt grabs her.  It is in vain, though, because Spiremon suddenly does a barrel roll and they all fall off.  The giant eagle begins to fall, too.  He glows and the golden glow returns to James's digivice, and Delcomon starts to fall.  Jessica holds her hands behind her and starts to roll forward until she's nosediving.  She pulls her arms in and legs straight and starts to rocket downward toward Daniel.

She grabs him and calls upon her power.  Finding herself in robes, she uses her feet to grab the cuff and as air fills her garment like a parachute, she decelerates quickly and starts to rise in relation to Matt.  She shivers at the extreme draft.  Matt pulls his shirt taunt outward trying to grab as much air as he can.  James does likewise, but nears Matt below him because he has the unconscious Delcomon in one arm.

Jessica slowly rises up, it seems, but she knows she's still falling downward, even though she has reached terminal velocity.  By now, the lack of oxygen has caught up with even her athletic lungs.  As she becomes dizzy, she prays, _Help._

: : :

I pull one arm on the Defender when I inhale deeply, as if suddenly in need of oxygen.  I hear "Help" screaming in my head.

Diana notices my peculiar behavior, "What is it?"

"Jessica's in trouble," I stammer.

"What?!"

"She's falling, from way up," I say, my eyes wide.  "She's over the ocean."

"What do you want to do?  Save her?  How do you know?"

"No time to explain.  And no time to get there," I continue, talking very quickly.  I'm thinking.  _How do I save her?_

I close my eyes, trying to come up with something.  I get glimpses.  They're falling fast… really fast.  Ocean below them.   Gliders flying around.  _Gliders?!_  I need more time!

Time.

I call upon my power and things slow down.  A lot slower.  Diana, who is in mid-stride running toward me, is nearly motionless.  _I've slowed down time a lot.  No time to brag.  I think hard.  They can dive, right?  They won't get hurt, I hope.  But what do they do from there?  _I close my eyes; James is holding Delcomon.  Spiremon's hurt, or something.  _They're falling fast, even diving could not them all out.  Then their sitting ducks for the gliders.  Damn them!  Wait!  That's it!_

I try to reach Jessica, hoping she's not unconscious.  _J.J., if you can hear me, this is what I'd like to you do…_

: : :

Justine is huffing and puffing as she glides through the air.  Exhausted, she rushes a head a bit and descends so Anna can see her.  Anna rolls her eyes, thinking, _That's__ the second time today!_

"Tired?" she jokes, as she lands gracefully beside Justine, how has already shed her backpack, the baby bag, and Virginia, who is tottering around, giggling.

"Well, I've got a twenty-pound backpack on my back, a seven pound diaper bag on my shoulder, and a twenty-five pound toddler in my arms.  I wear out."

"I'd help but…" Justine brushes her comment off, staring at her.

"Anna," she says, pensively, still looking intently at her.  "When you transform, you end up in the little dress."

"Yeah, and boy, do I look sexy."

Justine is unable to hold back a grin, "Yeah, okay.  Anyway, when you change back, you don't end up naked, as if they'd burn up."

"Yeah, I'd lose so many great outfits that way."

Justine continues, amused but a teensy bit frustrated, "…and my point is, you have your original clothes on.  Now, if you were to put on our extra sets of clothes over those clothes, that'd make my pack a little bit lighter."

"I'd get really hot, though!"

Justine replies with the force she knows is unnecessary, "One, they're going to disappear in a minute anyway," she holds back a giggle when Anna raises her eyebrows in a sultry manner, "and two, you gonna be engulfed in flames anyway!"

: : :

Anna looks back and forth as she puts on the denim vest over three tee-shirts.  She then pulls up a skirt over a pair of jeans, which covers her short shorts underneath.  

Justine, giggling, tells her, "Anna, there's no one around to see you but me."

As Anna adjusts things the best she can, she remarks, "I'm just glad someone didn't think to put a camera in our packs.  By the way, what are you doing?"  She says this because Justine is sitting at her laptop moving her hand back and forth, up and down.

"Nothing," she replies, looking at the screen, which features a photo of Anna in her current predicament.  She congratulates herself on reading the many instructions that Chris left as Anna changed, or dressed, should she say.  Looking up at Anna still pulling at her shirt, she comments, "You're sure fidgety."

"Well," Anna replies, in an annoyed tone, "you're a bit skinnier than I am and some of your garments are rather constricting."  Before Justine has a change to reply, Anna transforms, leaving her in the wispy sundress of the Sanguine.  "Much better," she comments, taking a deep breath.  She looks over at Justine, who as she recollects her stuff, the backpack noticeably smaller, and remarks, "Justine, you're sweating,"

"I'm standing ten feet from a raging inferno."

"Girl, you've been standing next to a raging inferno all day."

Justine rolls her eyes, picking up Virginia, "You know, if I had remembered how much of a flirt you were, I would have had one of the guys come."

"One of the guys?  Girlfriend, there ain't none of those guys worth flirting wit'."  Justine leans back a little bit, and give Anna a "C'mon."  Anna fold her arms and gives an overdramatic pensive look, "Well, maybe Daniel.  He's tall, and he plays soccer, so I bet he's got a good physique."

Justine smiles, with the same look, "You bet?  You're telling me you've never gotten the chance to see him play the Skins side of an impromptu soccer match or Ultimate Frisbee game?"

Anna gives Justine a surprised-but-impressed smile, and then moves her expression to emotionally moved, feigning weeping, "Justine, I am so proud of you."  In response, Justine rolls her eyes, rolls her head back, and transforms, her hair streaked with white and in the long, dark, sleeveless gown of the Inquirer.

Anna nods her head, whistling, and comments, "Baby, you have got to try that look on more often, 'cause, girl, you are…"

Justine cuts her off by taking off into the air.  Anna, still smiling, jumps up to follow her.

: : :

Jessica opens her eyes after hearing Christopher's psychic message.  _You're crazy!_  But she looks down, seeing the ocean racing toward her, completely unable to judge her speed.  Luckily, Daniel's body in her hand is weightless as they both fall straight down.  Desperate, she slaps Daniel awake and screams to him, "You see that glider?  I'm throwing you and you've got to catch him and hold on for dear life."

"What?!" Daniel screams, fully awake after hearing Jessica's order.  He has no time to refuse, because Jessica launches him forward.  He immediately regrets how strong she is.  Nonetheless, he tilts himself back and forth.  He can tell the water is only a hundred feet down, and her grabs onto the black glider he's aimed for just in time.  It immediately lunges forward and up, and Daniel holds on for dear life.  As he looks around, he sees that everyone else has done likewise.  Though James is having a particularly hard time because he still has Delcomon in one arm.  It now occurs to Daniel that he has no idea what to do now that he's on the frenzied glider.

Jessica sets the precedent.  As the glider lunges downward, Jessica lets go just before the glider crashes into the water with such force that it disintegrates.  Jessica lands in the water with minimal pain as she holds her arms and leg straight and jets under the water before rising to the surface.  Matt is the next to land in the water, though his glider doesn't crash, but he does.  Daniel lands next, and from his speed of descend, from a higher altitude; he land like Jessica.  James and Delcomon both land on their backs, but not too hard, but James does rub his head as he emerges from the water.

They look up.  A swarm of gliders is still buzzing around, much larger than they had originally estimated.  Jessica realizes she's long since given up on the mirage.  As she predicted they are sitting ducks in the water.  And the first glider in heading toward James.

: : :

A/N: Whoo!  Boy, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.  I hope this is the kind of caliber I can keep these chapters at from now on.

(Sonriso) - _On the road again, on the road again, so glad to be… on the road again… or on the enormous armored falcon again… or on the blue tiger again… or in the skies again… or on the armored bull that wasn't in this chapter…_  Hey, I could go on American Idol, and if Simon hates me, he's have the Herald of Sarcasm to reckon with… unless (gasp) he takes my place!  AHHHHHHH!!!


	12. Primary Trial

The Fate of the World: Primary Trials

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The Cave seekers are still only half-way to their destination and in peril in the middle of the ocean.  Others arrive to their locations, but things are calm.  The morbid prophecy beckons a lot from the DigiDestined, who seems to have very little time as it is just keeping the evil under control, or trying to.

A/N: All right, I am set to finish the series.  I've completely the story board and from here, it's smooth sailing.  For me, at least.  You still have to do all the waiting and bangin your head on the computer desk as I lazily upload these stories on at a time when I'm in the mood.  Anyway, from here, there shouldn't be any plot confusions.  There _shouldn't_.

Chapter 12: Primary Trials

Diana atop IceFelismon starts to slow down, and I stop beside her.  She pulls the map from her pocket, the original, and looks around.  "I think we're here."

I survey the area.  It's true we're in a valley.  We've been riding at a slight but noticeable downward slope.  As I look toward the horizon, it definitely ascends upward into the distance.  It's a nice bowl, giving the slight sense of security, though it's a very large, shallow bowl.  To the west, the land rises as well and to the ease is a bluff with several caves not too far from us.

"Well, we're in the valley for sure," I state.  "So, see any evil?" I ask, a bit of humor in my voice.

"No," she replies, seemingly oblivious to my sarcasm.  "I suggest we settle in over there in the caves.  We can rest, eat, and so on… save up our strength for any attacks.  Jessica said this place was crawling with evil.  Or digging," she says, looking at the ground thoughtfully.

We're carrying school-style backpacks, and there is barely have enough room for a single set of clothes, a laptop (which turns out to be an excellent though heavy addition), some first aid supplies, some other supplies, and a day or two worth of food, or rations should I say.  Wal-Mart has plenty of camping food, but it tends to be denser.  I'm getting tired of summer sausage after only over a day in the DigiWorld. 

"Christopher," Diana says to me as I put a sausage-and-cheese cracker sandwich in my mouth, "what's your thing with Jessica?"

I swallow and put the cracker down.  _This is not mealtime discussion._  I breathe in, "Jessica and I have some sort of connection."  Diana gives me a confused look.  I continue, "Jessica's the Sister, right?  Well, I think she's supposed to be my sister.  We call it Siblings of Destiny," I say, knowing full well how strange this must sound.  _How did the others catch on so quickly?_  "For example, when we're touching, we can more or less use the other person's power, or it's really more of a mental connection."  I can tell I'm loosing her.  "Remember back there when I said I knew Jessica was in trouble?  Well, we can kind of communicate telepathically.  We've shared some visions before."  I can help but feel I'm not getting anywhere.  "For whatever reason, we're connected.  It like… have you ever read Madeleine L'Engle's books?"  Diana nods.  We were on intramural book trivia team together.  I know for a fact that she's read the series.  "Well, you know how the characters can kithe with one another?"  I ask.

"Yeah.  Kithing, a telepathic connection with another person.  You can relive their experiences in a trance-like state."  A dictionary-esque definition I would have loved to have thought up myself.

"Well, it's like Jessica and I can kithe with one another."

"That's awesome," she says, but I don't feel that she means it.

"Diana…" I say, trying to evoke something.

She pulls out her crest from under her shirt.  I admire the golden Crest of Truth: a rectangle surrounding a circle with a triangle above it, piercing the top of the box, and a square below it, split into three triangular pieces.  "When you first disappeared, I was terrified, Christopher.  I thought I'd lost my best friend.  That night, when I still had tears in my eyes," she says, having tears right now, "Hawkmon appeared to me.  We talked long into the night and the nights following.  I was sure that you'd gone to the DigiWorld and that you'd be back.  And you did.  You came back.  But for a week, you showed no sign of having of a digimon, but you had a crest."  I mindlessly feel at it under my shirt.  "I knew what a crest was.  Hawkmon told me everything about the Digital World.  Suddenly, you were part of a different group.  The Ones with Crests.  And now that I have one two, I still feel separated because you're part of a more elite group, a partnership."

I'm lost with words about what to say.  I know how emotional Diana can get when it comes to friendship.  I spend over an hour talking to her on the phone the night I got back.  She needed to know I was okay.  "Diana, my connection with Jessica is not the Holy of Holies in this Solomon's Temple of our DigiDestined team.  Something supernatural is joining us, just the way something else supernatural joins the two of us: friendship."  _I don't usually think that well off the top of my head._

Diana smiles.  "I'm really glad that we're friends.  You know, it's something we had before we were DigiDestined, and it'll be something we have afterwards, and that's the only elite group I need to belong in."  _She couldn't have said it any better if this were a family-friendly sitcom._

: : :

Jessica heart drops as the glider dives for James.  James, however, lowers his eyebrows, and leaps as far as out of the water as he can, grabbing onto the glider as it hits him and tries to pull it underwater.  The glider, which apparently wasn't planning on hitting the water so quickly, cracks and dissolves.  James, however, gives a painful scream as he holds his forearm, which is bending in the middle, indicating a fracture.  Matt grabs James from behind, pulling James's arms close to his body and he spins him around, away from the gliders. 

"Delcomon armor-digivolve to… Spiremon."  Without a second glance, Spiremon glides into the air, chopping at gliders, smashing them with his wings, and even hunting them down in an enraged fury.  The few gliders that do escape explode as they near the water, which is glowing brightly.  Matt realizes that James's digivice is in full headlights mode, alighting the entire ocean, even in the daylight.

Matt, Daniel, and Jessica look down at the light, seeing it reach deep down into the ocean, where they see shadows of fish and other sea creature, but the light extinguishes.  The mesmerizing beauty of the ocean fades as the team realizes their present situation, which although safer in some respects, in still perilous.  Spiremon, working on adrenaline energy, is now completely exhausted and unable to carry them any farther.  They're floating in the middle of the ocean, still.  And one of the team is in need of medical treatment.

The water, which is calm but not glassy, becomes unsettled.   The gang can feel movement in the water and there's an inaudible groan in the water.  They look down and see a rather large shadow… growing.  Jessica debates swimming away but even her strong arms are tired from treading water for so long.

She looks down again and doesn't have time to react when an enormous whale lifts her and her friends out of the water.  The whale's body shakes as it shoots water from its spout in a menacing fashion.

: : :

Bullmon sets foot on the ground, a dusty field with sparse grass.  In all directions, the lands lays flat into the distance.  "Are we here?" Phillip asks. 

"I donna know," replies Eric, excitedly pulling out the laptop.  He lays his digivice in front of the ports in back of his computer until the icon comes up on the toolbar, which he click and pulls up a map.  He sees the two grayish dots blinking on an on-screen map.  "Okay, he continues," and clicks to pull up a scan of Diana's map.  It looks like we're darn near close.  See any evil?"

Phillip does a full 360 of the terrain.  Lots of grass in varying densities all around, some trees, but no sign of intelligent life.  "No,"

"Man!  It's just like a timeshare.  You're promised a lot and you don't nothing."

Phillips smiles at how light-heartedly Eric perceives the world.  "Let's try to contact the others."

He, too, pulls out his laptop.  It seems almost overkill to have a separate computer for each person, but Phillip sees that it's worth it as Eric is playing Hearts on his own computer.

Phillip contacts Christopher and asks for instructions.  Christopher has found all sorts of programs on his computer, which seem to be installing themselves automatically, constantly, and quickly.

Phillip pulls up a program that Christopher has directed him to use.  It pulls up a 3-D projection of the land.  Phillip waves his hands around, zooming out the projection.  "Hey, Chris, what do I do now?" he asks, his voice transmitting through the connection. 

"You'll see a lot of buttons on the side," Christopher's voice comes through the speakers, "they're labeled with strange symbols.  Start clicking on them and it'll show stuff like water movement, areas of high density, and so on.  Just keep looking."

Eric, not wanting to miss the action, also begins to search the terrain.  "Whoa…"

: : :

Christopher sits in the outer section of a cave, the afternoon sun gleaming across his straight face.  Diana sets up camp behind him, looking up ever so often.  "What'cha doin'?" she asks.

"I've found a program on my computer.  It seems important, but the text is in DigiCode, so I can read it."

"We got two digimon with us.  Let them read it for you."

Christopher replies immediately, in an overly ominous tone, "Hawkmon can't decipher it; she's been showing me what some of the symbols mean.  It's quite interesting.  Did you know it's not a phonetic language?  It's symbolic, sort of.  Most words consist of three symbols, which each have their own 'partial-meaning,' but put together, mean an entire word?  Anyway, I showed her some of the text in this program.  Nine out of ten symbols were foreign to her, which was ironic because understanding the symbology is instinctive."

"Well, what do you have so far?"

"From what I can tell, this is a password screen, so to speak.  It's asking for input in this little box here, but the keyboard is non-responsive.  It works with everything else, but it's like the password box doesn't want keyboard input.  I'm going to try to figure it out tonight."

"Hoping to the unlock the secrets of the DigiWorld?" Diana jokes.

Christopher just smiles, "Something like that."

: : :

Justine lowers herself to the ground, and Anna follows her.  "We here," the redhead asks her friend.

Justine replies, for once unsure, "I think so."

"You… think so?" Anna pulls out her laptop.  "How do you work this thing?" she mumbles, as much to herself as Justine.  "How do I find the map program.  The map."  Her computer beeps and the map program comes up.

"Cool," Anna comments.

"Yeah, it's more than user-friendly; it's fool-proof."

"Yeah.  Hey!  Anyway, we're here."

Justine looks to her right.  Sure enough, between two rock pinnacles is a lagoon-like body of water, looking rather peaceful.  "It's the cove," remarks Justine, putting down the fidgety Virginia, who meanders around.

Anna starts to remove her extra sets of clothes, stuffing them in her unpacked backpack in Justine's bag.  "I'm burning up."

Justine chuckles, "You know, it would be cartoony for me to make a joke about that."

Anna rolls her eyes, "Feel free.  From what I've heard about the digimon show, it is a cartoon with lame jokes."

Neither of the girls, in their conversation, notice the gurgling in the cove's once-peaceful waters.

: : :

A/N: I take it back.  This might take quite a few chapters to tell.  The problem is that I don't think I should return to a scene in the same chapter if it doesn't feel like I should.  Plus, I've got unbalanced story lines, so I'm in the process of killing time in certain places to progress the story in a rather chronological fashion.  I'm afraid it's diluting the story.  On the other hand, with cliffhangers after every scene, my audience can probably barely breathe.  Or maybe I'm overestimating myself again.  Sorry.  Anyway, read on.  You know you want to.

(Sonriso) - He's definitely getting cocky.  You don't see me biting my nails.  I'm not at the edge of my seat.  Granted, I don't have fingernails, or extremities for that matter, or really any body part besides a face.  So I'm not at the edge of my seat, because I don't have a… seat… at all.


	13. The Lull Shattered

The Fate of the World: The Lull Shattered

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon___

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: Phillip finds a new friend. The lull of safety is shattered for most of the DigiDestined.

A/N: Okay, this is moving right along. I hope you've been enjoying this so far.

Chapter 13: The Lull Shattered

At the moment, Phillip is concerned about something on the monitor screen. He's been using the terrain program to look for strange occurrences. A composition test of the water showed trace levels of an unknown substance. In reality, this is a profound concept, being able to analyze the earth's layers without any invasive tests, but Phillip, a fan of science fiction and a rather uninterested news watcher, thinks very little of it. Presently, he watches as the program plots the movement of the underground water, resulting in a rather large water table just beneath him, down some ten meters.

But Phillip's extra-sensitive hearing picks up on something else, not something on the computer screen. Something's moving in the grass. The sound is growing louder, _closer._ Phillip finds the sound very odd, though. It's definitely something moving through the grass, but it's… noisy. The footsteps are quick and erratic, not like those of a stalking animal, which are soft, slow, and rhythmic. Whatever it is, it's running—fleeing, in fact. Phillip noiselessly moves through the tall grass. There's a loud squawk and suddenly something jumps on him. He falls back, but more from fear, for the creature is a small penguin-like animal.

It squawks again. "Help me!" it cries in a terrified, high-pitched tone of voice. Phillip hears what the penguin is afraid of. He hears the pounding of hooves in the distance. The creature chasing the small digimon is large. Phillips looks forward. The grass is being parted by a large object moving the brush aside, and heading straight toward the two. "Don't worry," Phillip reassures the creature, placing it behind him. His crest glows as he stares into the distance. The sound galloping grows louder, nearer. The penguin tilts its head forward. Suddenly, an enormous brown creature leaps from the air, its hooves still moving. Phillip creates his defense aura, which the monster slams against, causing Phillip to be slid backwards in a prone position, taking the penguin with him in the concrete dome. He looks forward; it's Bullmon.

"Sorry 'bout that, Phillip," Bullmon says, before glowing and shrinking into Wormmon. The white ball of light flies backwards into the distance. "I thought he was an enemy. We heard him moving around in the grasslands.

Eric runs up from the wall of tall grasses. "Hey, Phillip. Bullmon, did you get him?"

"No," Phillip replies.

"You see it? It was huge!"

Phillip pushes the penguin out from behind him, which is shivering vehemently. It looks much like a normal penguin, though small for its shape, only its eyes are large and human-like; it has a red, furry stripe down its back; and it has three small digits extending from its flippers.

Eric looks at the terrified bird and looks to Wormmon, "Dude, you said it was a huge creature."

"Well, I didn't actually see it, but I saw some grass parting and… you can't be too careful," it continues, embarrassed.

Phillip leans down toward the creature, "What's your name, little guy?"

"Falkmon," it replies, which a high-pitched voice with a bit of squawk in it.

"Well, you can stay with us. There's terrible trouble brewing here."

"Yeah, I know. I can feel it." Phillip knows this all too well through his animal attunement. Falkmon continues, "This is my home, usually. Well, I actually reside in that mountain over there," it says, pointing a flipper, "but I know this territory pretty well, so I travel down here a lot, but boy, there's something wrong going on here."

Eric smiles, "You got that right! We've been invaded by this big black thing. We think he's trying to destroy the DigiWorld."

"Very reassuring, Eric, thank you."

"Just doing my job."

: : :

Jessica, Matt, Daniel, Delcomon, and the injured James find themselves above the water, suspended on an enormous whale.

"Thank you," a deep, slow voice says below them.

Jessica smiles uncomfortably, "Well, you're very welcome. What did we do?"

"The golden light has freed much of the ocean. We were overcome by a terrible evil force, but we have been saved!" This vibrating comment causes Jessica to tumble.

"Sorry about that," the whale remarks. "I'm Whamon. Can I do anything for you?

"Yeah," Matt says, "we're actually trying to reach the Cave of Destiny."

"Well, why didn't you say so earlier? Hold on!" Without giving them time to do so, Whamon rushes forward, causing all to fall forward, except for James, who has been crouching the whole time. Pulling the first aid kit from her pack, Jessica ties James a sling.

"We really need to get a splint on him," Matt comments.

"We don't have anything long and rigid enough to do so. We'll find something on shore." The trip to shore takes under thirty minutes. Jessica immediately begins first aid on James. "Somebody find me two long, straight poles,"

Matt shakes his head and mutters, "You insult me. Lay him down."

Jessica does so, laying James's injured arm to the ground. Matt holds his hands above the ground, and four perfectly straight poles sprout from the ground. He lays two on the ground on either side of James's arm and holds the other two in place near the sides of his arms. Several thin vines sprout from the ground and twist and turn around James's arms, holding the poles in place. Matt clenches his hands and the vines tighten around his arm. When James lifts his arms, grimacing a few vines jumps over his shoulder and around his torso, creating a decent splint and sling. "Thanks, Matt," James says, feeling the inelastic support.

He looks up, "Where are we?"

Whamon, who's been waiting in the water, replies, "The shore of Nexus on the Continent of Interface. The Cave of Destiny is just through that forest.

Jessica walks over onto the beach, "Thank you, Whamon. We really appreciate it. We're going to save the word."

"I trust you will, beautiful Sister. I have faith in you." With this, he submerges.

Daniel nods, "So now all we have to do is find the Cave of Destiny."

"You'll never make it, puny DigiDestined," calls a deep, roaring voice. Before the DigiDestined is a large, upright lion. His eyes are completely black. In his hand-like paw, he clutches a primitive sword, raised above his head, ready to strike his nearest target: James.

: : :

Christopher, sitting on the ground, his laptop on the ground in front of him, the screen showing the box with unreadable characters, the elusive password field highlighted. He taps his fingers together as he stares blankly at the screen. "Gotta open the door. Gotta open it." His eyes widen. He recalls the flashback of opening the DigiPort. "No," he whisper, "it can't be… I would have…" He grabs his digivice and holds it before the screen. A short string of digicharacters fills the first box and a string of ring-shaped characters fills the second box.

Immediately the screen changes and a new box appears, with a scrolling text area containing a list of words in digicode. He studies them closer. The first two characters in each word are the same. He clicks the first one and a smaller, familiar box comes up: another password field. He holds up his digivice to the screen and is surprised to be answered with an error message. He can't translate the character in the top, left-hand corner of the box, but its shade of red indicates to him that that character is the equivalent symbol for "Access Denied."

He tries again with an entry farther down on the list. _Access denied._ And again. The screen comes up; he holds up his digivice, sighing, but something different happens. A screen comes up with buttons with more illegible text. _I have got to learn DigiCode_, he thinks. He clicks one of the buttons and an image comes up. It's a 3D picture of the top half of his torso, shirtless. He notices the scrollbar to the left, and delicately taps the down arrow a few times before tapping the up arrow quickly, his eyes wide. He closes this window and clicks the next as he backs toward the wall, briefly taking a glance at the sleeping Diana.

The next button brings up similar 3D images of articles of clothing: a pair of blue jeans, a gray tee-shirt, socks, a watch, and the rest of the ensemble which he quickly realizes is the outfit he has on. He tries the next button. This time a semi-transparent 3D image of a long tube appears, through which red liquid flows. Several lines of DigiCode are scattered around, including a line of text that points to one of many small spheres in the flowing liquid. He touches the text and a popup screen appears, showing him a sticks-and-sphere diagram of a rather complex molecule. Several lines of text appear, and Christopher again starts to feel the frustration of not knowing the language.

He clicks the box away, but misses the close button and instead touches the top edge of the image. Another popup, this time the picture of the human cardiac system, appears, zooming in on the heart. The black dots, which are labeled with the same sequence of characters as the molecule flow through the atriums. The heart begins to beat faster. The picture zooms out and it shows the blood moving quickly through the veins and arteries. Just as it moves up toward the brain, it hits him: adrenaline.

He clicks the two popup windows away. He clicks the image and it comes back to life. Knowing the tube is a blood vessel, he watches as it shrinks as the image enlarges to show his entire body, which has changed to show the epidermal layer. He strategically places his mouse and sits back to watch. The skin disappears, showing the black-dotted blood flowing. An image of his crest appears to the left of the body, which is shown glowing. The black dots multiply and run quickly through the vessels. The crest disappears, but a box in the lower, right-hand corner appears, and the Caretaker's robes appear on the body once again. The background, which before was a yellowish void, turns toward an outdoor scene: a forest area beside a pond. He watches as the digital projection of him raises one arm and water droplets from the pond float up out of the body of water. The screen then zooms in toward his head, entering it, and showing his brain from behind, where a blood vessel quickly enlarges and constricts. The image zooms out, showing the heart beating very quickly. It zooms in again toward the brain, passing it and showing things through the projection's eyes, which is viewing slowly falling water droplets. One curves and starts to lunge forward, but the point of view changes slowly, tilting toward the left. The droplet no longer is coming straight toward the screen but to the right. The projection watches as the water bullet flies by, only inches from the vantage point.

: : :

Somewhat disturbed, I close the movie, leaving me back with the initial choice screen. I get the feeling I've broken into some huge cavern of secrets. I've always been one to enjoy huge epiphanies, but this has caused a pang in my chest because it's so… personal. For the moment, I feel like Justine, who also has knowledge whispered into her ear, but more so, I feel like Jessica, who visions are quite profound, if not the slightest bit painful.

I look at the highlighted entry: me. I count the others: eleven, just as I expected. _Why did I privatize everything? _The passwords are embedded in each individual digivice. I can't access them without the other digivices. Katmondu is lying on the ground, his digivice on his neck, but I don't want to disturb him. Diana's is still attached to her backpack, but I feel a pang of guilt for wanting to snatch her digivice. I almost laugh at the thought of the big right-to-privacy versus right-to-know controversy going on in the real world comes to mind. But I'm on the verge of something and I can't resist the temptation, but then…

: : :

C.J. has added two child sleeping bags onto his chair. He eats grapes out of a bowl and opens yet another Sam's Choice Cola. He grabs a remote from the table and starts flipping through the channel of an enormous big-screen TV with a satellite attached to the top. He reaches down a picks up a carton of ice cream, which he begins to eat.

His computer beeps again. He looks left toward the laptop sitting on a rolling chair. He reaches behind the chair and grabs a toy grabber-claw, which he uses to pull the chair closer as he continues to recline in the deck chair. He pushes a button on the laptop and rolls it away, though it doesn't go far because of all the wires attached. He takes an infrared keyboard and looks at the other big screen TV which he is using as his monitor.

Christopher has sent him an Instant Message: _Can you hack?_

_No_, he replies, _feet get tangled_

_computers_, comes up on the screen.

_o__… no_

Another message appears: _I think I figured out how our powers work. But I can only open them with that person's digivice. I'd like a back door._

C.J. rolls his eyes at Chris's predicament, _Dude, you're locked out. Those are non-shared files. Even if you knew their passwords, you couldn't type them in. They're in DigiCode._ C.J. takes a pensive look at the keyboard, filled with Roman characters. He could imagine how DigiCode must have thousands of characters.

C.J. stares at the screen, wanting to help Christopher. As if to find something, he scans the monitor up and down, right and left. His eyes fall to the Start button in bottom corner. He clicks it, hoping to explore the computer for ways to help. His mouse rolls onto the My Computer icon so he can peruse, but something else catches his eye: the "Log Off" command button.

He hurriedly goes back to instant message program. _Chris, have you put in a login password?_

A slight delay, then a reply appears, _No, we all have our own computers. No need for it._

C.J. types: _Does the term "public domain" mean anything to you?_

Christopher replies with a series of question marks, then: _The network!!! _There is another pause, then: _But that only allows me to access the files on the other computers. It doesn't give me access to their digivices._

_Yeah, but everything had to use their digivices to get into the DigiWorld, right?_

_Are you telling me that you think I could get access to the data that the digivices threw into the computer. Yeah, we're networked, but how do I sort through it?_

_Check the files for randomly named folders. If it tried to translate DigiCode, the computer would have just done something with character values. The digivices loaded programs before they sent out their signature. I believe the only thing they were sending out when you held them to the monitors was their signature. Have a look-see._

There is a very long pause while C.J. stares at the screen, wondering if Chris has heard him. Then: _a file named by characters I wouldn't know how to type. inside is twelve small text files, each named a long string of numbers, the first seven or so digits the same. catch my drift?_

_time__ recorded files, probably in millis_

_good__ luck_

And the InstaChat window disappears on C.J.'s oversized TV.

: : :

A/N: Whew! All these storylines are exhausting! I'll try to cut down on that a little. Anyway, hold on. They're being posted as fast as I can write them.

(Sonriso) - _In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the Herald screams tonight… _Sorry. Just in the mood.


	14. Endurance of Steel

The Fate of the World: Endurance of Steel

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon___

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: Much of the prophecy has not been fulfilled, and time is of the essence. The already exhausted Cave of Destiny team faces still more trials. The others will soon encounter more.

A/N: Well, you know what a title like that means. I hope this is exciting for you, because for me, who has been piecing this story together for months, er, years, it seems contrived. Well, anyway, if I ever become a writer, and I redo this, somehow getting around the whole legal loophole that I'm using trademarked characters, then I will _really_ whip this thing into shape. For now, you'll just have to enjoy what I've done so far. I really discourage you from reading these author's notes; you're not getting a lot out of them.

Chapter 14: Endurance of Steel

James looks up, his arm bound tightly to his chest, his eyes wide, his pupils small. The anthromorphic lion creature stares down at him with glowing black eyes and a sword raised high into the air. Jessica, Matt, and Daniel are paralyzed by fear. With a mighty roar, Leomon brings his sword down on James, only to cut over halfway through a root a foot thick. James scrambles up and retreats to the back, where Delcomon digivolves in front of him. James's digivice glows, emitting a beacon, illuminating the shore, which darkens as the blood red sun sets on the far horizon.

The light casts shadows on the scene. Spiremon's shadow is seen in the clouds above, which are slowly creating a blanket over the land. He watches the moving shadows of the Magistrate, who shadow is constantly intersected by the vines and shrubs his grows from the ground. The Champion's shadow is often overtaken by the large masses of earth that erupt from the ground. The Sister creates no shadow at all, hiding safely away until she can create a plan of attack, with a miraged double standing in her place, looking threatening, even moving around, but not coming in contact with the beast.

But it is the shadow of Leomon that amazes James the most. The sturdy legs of such a creature would create two long rows on the ground, but instead, a large sheet-shaped shadow emerges from Leomon's legs, touching both edges of his hind feet, but spreading outward, as if the shadow was created by a creature wearing a robe. As Leomon holds his sword into the air, James notices that the shadow arm holding the sword in bony, much unlike the thick, muscular arms of Leomon. It is then where James realizes the outline: it is of the dark creature that destroyed Westwood Junior High and Daphne Brighton Auditorium.

"Wait!" he cries.

Jessica comes up to him from behind, hissing, "James, are you crazy? This thing would sooner kill us! What's with the sudden misplaced mercy?"

"The creature is not evil; it's possessed by the monster."

"So was half the ocean until that light blast saved them all."

"Well, it's the same here," commented James.

Jessica becomes livid, "James, we don't know how that light appeared. I doubt you can just ask this guy to hold still until you figure it out."

Without another world, James walks forward, Matt and Daniel flying backwards on either side of him. James holds out his digivice, his good arm stretched, hand shaking, face grimacing. He watches as the sword comes down on him in a repetition from before. He hears the others cry out, knowing they won't have time to save him again.

James is drawn from his fear at the sound of metal clashing against metal not far from his head. James opens his eyes, seeing a translucent dome around him, glowing with crimson light. Leomon looks perplexed. The sphere melts away and he attacks again. James's reflexes throw his arm in front of him, and he feel the blade hit him, but is surprised how dull it is. He looks at his arm, fearing the worst despite the utter lack of pain and sees an irregularly shaped sheet of metal covering part of his forearm with a deep scratch through the middle. Eyes still in amazement, he jumps forward, grabbing onto Leomon's armed arm. Leomon throws his sword to the other hand at strikes hard at James, who falls, but with another layer of metal covering the better half of his left torso.

Jessica, Daniel, Matt, and Spiremon stand awestruck. They watch as James takes hold of the blade as Leomon brings it down. James grabs it halfway up and bends it completely over.

Leomon cries, "Master! The Cavalier has come. What must I do?"

James is engulfed in the familiar light and the other smile as they realize he his transforming into the Cavalier. The Cavalier, they find out, is an armored warrior. The arm that was broken now plainly isn't. A sleek layer of scale-like armor covers most of his body, including a one-piece hood-helmet that connects to his back and shoulders as well as protecting most of his face. This hood doesn't hinder his speech though.

"Spiremon, come!" Spiremon leaps in to the air, taking flight. As a golden necklace forms around James's armor, he kneels to the ground, he grabs something on the ground. It is the handle of a sword, which he pulls from the ground. He holds it up, turns sideways as he jumps onto the beak of the diving Spiremon, who cocks his beak, aiding James's in his leap onto Spiremon's back. His avian steed hovers above the ground as James calls out to the possessed Leomon, "Creature of Darkness! You have taken control of much of this world, but no longer shall you. The DigiDestined have come, and they are well-prepared. You will not succeed!"

Matt nudges Daniel, "Kinda corny speech, don't you think?"

Daniel rolls his eyes, "Yeah, but, come on, that's what you do when you're fighting evil."

James throws his sword down, and the blade lunges deeply into the ground. The entire sword is steel gray, completely unadorned, only the rounded hilt and long blade, which stands up like a cross.

"Missed, foolish Cavalier!" Leomon taunts.

James simply cries out, "Endurance of Steel!"

His newly formed crest and digivice glows, shining upon the sword, which absorbs the light until it too glows red-hot. The digivices and crests of the Sister, the Champion, and the Magistrate also feed the glowing weapon until it shines with white light.

Leomon falls to his knees before the cross, the blackness leaving his irises, before he falls face first into the dirt. The glow leaves the sword, leaving it irreparably tarnished.

James falls backwards on Spiremon's back, who lands and dedigivolves, his partner safely asleep on the ground.

: : :

James's eyes slowly focus and he immediately tries to leap back, but he's flat against the ground. The first thing he sees is the faces of his friends and Leomon, his eyes white, with pupils.

In a deep, gruff voice, Leomon says to James, his arm extended, "Thank you, Cavalier. You have saved me."

James takes his paw and is jolted by the lion's strong arm lifting him up. "No problem," he replies, catching his breath.

"I believe this is yours," Leomon says, pulling out the Cavalier's nondescript sword, which James's jumps away from.

"Thanks, why don't you keep it?" James asks, holding his hands up.

"Thank you," Leomon says, giving it a few thrusts, which are too close for James's comfort. "I will use the Light of the Cavalier within it to free those under the control of the Darkness." With this, he puts it in his sheath. "My friends, the Cave of Destiny is just beyond that mountain. You will get there before dark if you leave now. I shall leave you now. I have faith that you shall succeed." Without another word, Leomon walks in the opposite direction of the Cave of Destiny.

Daniel smirks, "Did he say we would get there before dark? There's maybe half an hour's worth of light left," he comments, looking at the sky, which is merging into purple.

Matt states, "Let's get a move on, but first, James, let's check out that Crest of yours."

The Crest of Righteousness is a crowned shield on a crimson background, a blade dividing it vertically, a small triangle at sinister chief (top left) and a small circle at dexter chief (top right). The lock of hair by James's right temple is the color of fresh blood, much darker than his crest, very noticeable against his straw-colored hair. Also, both of his irises are a similar red color, a dramatic change from their former teal hue.

Leomon wasn't kidding. The sun's last rays of sunshine of the day show the DigiDestined the entrance of the cave. Matt holds his arms out, blocking the others.

"Jessica, the cave is guarded, right?"

"Heavily. The three strongest digimon that Aneramon could find guard it with extreme vigilance, and extreme prejudice."

Matt's brow wrinkles, "Then we make camp and go for it in the morning." Daniel shoots him a look, "James is weak, as is Delcomon. None of us is at full strength. And we're all tired. We make camp, and we go after the Cave of Destiny tomorrow morning. Hopefully, this Cave of Destiny that needs to be renewed is open to the DigiDestined. I've had enough fighting digimon without having to face the three that auditioned for Best in Show and got the blue, red, and yellow ribbons."

"So, where we set up camp?" James asks.

Matt replies, "Not far from here. We want to be ready in case the Outer Triad comes after us."

After several minutes of surveying the ground, he finally chooses a campground based on Jessica's expertise: the spot where she collapses onto the ground, dead asleep. Matt conjures up a picture-perfect fire pile, looking up at the night sky. He whispers to James and Daniel, "No sunlight; how do I light this thing? I'm not rubbing sticks together. Guys, about 'bout some flint and steel?"

"Where you gonna…?" Daniel asks, before realizing his potential and walking over to the bluff, searching for a deposit of flint, his eyes closes, his hand grazing the surface of the cliff. Meanwhile, James rubs his hands together and giving Matt the fruit of his labor, a lumpy pole of steel. Matt eyes it and James, seeing this, whispers, "I've had these powers for an hour! You're lucky I conjured that!"

"It's okay. Hey, Daniel, wha'cha doin' over there?"

"Dude, I can't create rock out of thin air like Colossus over there. I gotta find a deposit and bring it to the surface. There," and he comes back with a decent chuck of black stone, which he hands to Matt, who whacks it against a nearby rock. Daniel cries, "What's up with that?"

Matt sighs, "Flint breaks along flat cleavage…" A giggle escapes Daniel's mouth. Matt continues, "…resulting in a sharp blade-like fragments, which are extraordinarily good for creating sparks," which the last syllable, he strikes the flint blade hard against the steel chuck, creating a small fireworks show, which causes the fire to start. Before long, Matt has a softly roaring fire going, impressing the two friends who are awake.

Jessica's breathing pattern, which before was regular, suddenly alters as she gasps in her sleep. The boys look in her direction, but she resumes softer breaths… for a moment, and then makes a small grunt-like whimper. Her nightmare sounds continue, and Daniel attempts to rouse her. "Jessica, you okay?" but she remains deeply asleep, with the occasional whimper.

James's face becomes serious, "You think she's having such sort of nocturnal vision?"

Daniel raises his shoulders, "I don't know. This is why I wasn't crazy about splitting up. I know I suggested it, but the group dynamic was nice. I was coming to appreciate Justine's thin-air revelations."

Matt, who has moved toward Jessica, comments, "Guys, she's still dreaming, and she's not coming out of it. Should I be worried?"

James sighs, "Be worried all you want. Pray. Not else you can do." He's almost cut off but an unmistakable hushed scream from Jessica.

: : :

The projection of Anna on screen bursts into flames as she floats into the air. DigiCode labels points to various parts of her body, and I see air flow arrows showing me her sustained propulsion. _Fascinating_, I think. Suddenly, Hawkmon flies by my head, pursued by Katmondu and Salamon. I look up to Diana, who smirks, "They're playing tag."

I laugh, "Who's It?"

"Me," she replies, tapping my shoulder and running off. I click the Standby button on my laptop and run after her. For the most part, I'm not too athletic and don't enjoy sports, but I've always had a gift for short distance running. In no time, I've already caught up with Diana, who looks back and screams. Right as I'm about to catch her, I am slowed down by a gust of wind as Diana starts to giggle. I sigh, knowing Katmondu will easily outrun me, being both quick and agile. Hawkmon can fly. I figure Salamon can't be too quick, so I go in pursuit of him. His feet are ill-equipped for running, and I easily catch him.

He goes after Diana after I sprint away. Turns out he's pretty crafty and his quick turns and false sprints get Diana's legs tied up in knots. She trips over her own feet, laughing like an eight-year-old, before getting up and chasing Hawkmon. Though I think she's hasn't a chance, a downward gust pulls Hawkmon closer to the ground. Diana makes a magnificent leap, no doubt aided by an updraft, but Hawkmon dives out of reach until Diana lands gracefully on the ground, and Hawkmon is already soaring again.

She turns her energy to Katmondu, blowing him backwards, but the wind suddenly ceases as a bitterly cold gust of wind hits her from behind, and a shiver weakens her momentum. By now, I have stopped running, but make a sudden, awkward sprint towards Katmondu. My legs are sore, but I have a plan. Katmondu, again frightened by his pursuers, creates another cold draft. Diana suddenly finds herself with patches of ice. She falls to the ground, exhausted and laughing. I go over to help her; the frozen drizzle that covers her body disappears by my command. A warm wind cycles around us. For a moment, amidst the laughter of everyone, we forget where we are. We forget our quest. We forget everything.

But deep in my mind, I hear a scream, and the smile on my face disappears into horror.

"Christopher…?" Diana whispers, "What is it?"

"Jessica…"

The setting sun gives us enough light to get back to the cave. I sit down and close my eyes, "I'll see what's happening real quick." Jessica's voice becomes clearer; images begin to form around me, creating a scene. I find myself in the desert. In the distance, I hear her screaming, and begin to run toward it.

_I can't help her physically, but at least I'm connected…_

: : :

A/N: Whew, this is becoming exhausting. Sit tight; I know what I'm doing. Anyway, the next chapter promises to be a big one, so don't give out on me yet.

(Sonriso) - You know, Creedog, for someone who is working on their foreshadowing, I haven't heard the slightest mention or hint of how the Herald of Sarcasm is going to save the day.


	15. Shield, Tear, and Light

The Fate of the World: Shield, Tear, and Light

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG (for mild language and tense situations)

Language: English

Summery: Jessica finds herself in danger. Justine and Anna have a rough night.

A/N: I'm unusually excited about this chapter. I, for some reason, feel that I am going to enjoy writing this chapter. It's going to put a lot of stuff in perspective. If for some strange reason, you haven't read the previous two parts, The Powers Within and Dark Reflections, I would do so. I'm surprised a person as lost as you could get this far without becoming annoyed, because I'm not much for recapping, which is only good if there's a lot of material between now and background information you need to know, and this has been a rather linear story, despite some brief flashbacks and concurrent storylines. Anyway, this author's note is getting ridiculously long, so let me let you read the story, which is the reason you're here, I assume.

Chapter 15: Shield, Tear, and Light

I have to shield my eyes from bright sunshine before getting out my sunglasses, bringing some relief. I look around. I am _not_ where I used to be. The hilly grass plain is gone, and instead, there is a bleak desert. Yellow sand is everywhere; the heat causes refracted light to make my vision blurry. There is nothing around me, not Diana, not Katmondu, not Hawkmon, not Salamon, not the cave, nor anything that was there two minutes ago. For a moment, I think it might be a mirage, but I check anyway. I see Jessica standing, motionless. As I approach, I realize that she's standing on train tracks. She doesn't turn her head as I approach her.

"Jessica…?" I say.

She looks at me, "Hey, Christopher, what are you…" but she trails off.

"Um, I'm not sure. I heard you scream, and I connected with you. It brought me here." I assume this must be some sort of mirage in my mind that allows me to see Jessica where she is. It's a fairly good one. I'm hot and sweaty; the sand sinks in as I walk through it. I continue talking, "Uh, where are the guys? And the Cave of Destiny?"

"I don't know. The Cave of Destiny is built at the base of a mountain, at the edge of a forest."

I look around. There are a couple of mesas, but no forested mountains. "How did you get here, J?"

She scoffs, welled-up emotion stifled, "I don't know… We were looking for a place to camp out. It was getting dark, you know?" The Cave of Destiny might be a time zone or two away, and that would explain a couple of hours of sunset delay, but the sun here in directly overhead. We must be halfway around the DigiWorld. She still hasn't moved from the train tracks.

"You waiting to catch a train?" I ask, humorously.

"You could say that," she remarks flatly. The creepiness of the response catches me off-guard. I look to the left. Barely visible, very far down the tracks, is a train. "Well, then, I'd get off the track. Or you'll be extreme front row seats."

She doesn't move and I repeat myself. "I can't," she remarks.

"Why? There's a train coming toward you." I look again. It's an old-fashioned steam engine, still quite far away, but approaching. I look back to her. She's holding back tears. I look her up and down. I don't see anything physically binding her down.

I check for the train again. It's closer than I expected. It's kind of wobbling, barreling down the track, at a manic speed that it would seem incapable of moving. I feel the ground start to vibrate. I state firmly, "Jessica, get off the tracks. It's me, but not in the flesh. This is something you're miraging."

She sighs, looking at me with a sad look. Not a panicked, oh-God-I'm-scared-for-my-life look, more like a my-cat-just-died look. The train is coming, oddly dark smoke erupting from its smokestack, the wheels bouncing on and off the rails. "Jessica," I hiss, "I'm not corporeal. I can't shove you off this track. Move!"

She closes her eyes, tears falling down her face. The train is too close. I leap forward, desperately wishing I could push her off. I lose my breath as my hands collide with Jessica's torso. I pull my legs away as the train goes hurling past, looking at the frightened Jessica. "Jessica…?" I say.

"Yeah…" she replies, dazed.

"You're alive?"

"Thanks to you," she replies, cryptically. She watches the crazed train with disbelief.

"J.J., I'm not here. I'm sitting in a cave near the plain, in a very deep mental connection with you. Where are the guys?"

"I was just with them. We were settling down for the night. We'd found the Cave of Destiny. And I went to sleep. And then…" she trails off.

"Are you dreaming?" I ask, in a mix of emotions.

"Déjà vu," she states, "I've been having this dream before. Only, you're never here. Not before."

"And do you get hit by a train?"

"No, I always wake up before it hits me."

I try not to roll my eyes at the cliché. "So, can we avoid the conversation about knowing when we're dreaming, and whether one of us is dreaming about the other saying they're dreaming, or whether we're sharing a dream. Let's just leave it at the fact that we have the connection, and we're both here, and if not, we can both forget it."

"Sorry about your sunglasses," she says, holding up the mangle rim of the left earpiece.

"It's okay; I've got three pair and I don't think any of this is real. Or at least DigiWorld real. By the way, back in the Real World, or the Real DigiWorld, should I say, what's been going on?"

Jessica relates the story of her very hectic and busy journey to the Cave of Destiny. I tell her I understand why she collapsed on the ground. I relate the occurrences in my life, about not seeing any evil creatures since we were there. I do tell her about all I've learned from the computer digivices. "Apparently, there are semi-scientific reasons why we're able to do this stuff. Of course, it's mostly how, not why, and not all the how, either. How we magically change clothes still alludes me, but from what I know about the DigiWorld from past experiences—"

"Past experiences?" she interrupts, "You've been here before?"

"The show," I reply. It's strange trying to remember that everything that's happening to us, all of it, is supposed to occur in a fictional, Japanese, animated television show. "As I was saying, the DigiWorld seems to be a separate, universe-void that had a parallel creation-structure of computers and the Internet, so when we invented those things, the DigiUniverse started to imitate the real world, but didn't get everything right. For one, I don't think this is a physical universe. I think some fundamental laws of physics, those that would be really hard to define, such as the Conservation of Mass and Energy, can't relate, so that's how we're able to do such supernatural stuff. Understand?"

"Not a word." I frown, but she remarks, "Is it like _The Matrix_?"

"Haven't seen the movie, but from the way Matt describes the plot, yes." I say deliberately, knowing I'd be going nowhere trying to explain the differences I myself am unsure about.

"So, you get why we all can go all powered up?"

"Not why, but individually how, yeah. The digivices seem to be able to call upon the powers, from where, who knows, but I've found out that the digivice can detect adrenaline flow. You'll notice whenever you're scared, your impenetrable defense aura will come up and protect you. How the digivice or the DigiWorld mainframe chooses what powers you get to have, I don't know, but how it works I can explain. In your case, the energy boost brought to you gives you a two-way line to the minds of others. You can directly, or really through a mediator, control the senses of others. You want us to see something, we do. The sound thing and the touch thing is not a far stretch, just becoming better in control of your power."

"And in your case?"

"Water power? My connection with the mainframe allows me to alter the physics of bodies of water, but it's not that strong. You'll notice I'm not moving entire lakes. I can't really get a hold of a lot of water with my power, but it's enough to fight evil. But, I'm compensated for it. Because not all my power is directed at controlling water, the excess energy will boost my brainpower…"

"Which a straight-A student really needs…" she quips.

"It hyperactivates my brain, allowing me to see things in slow-motion."

"Like controlling time?"

"To me, yes. I don't move any faster, I just am able to fine-tune my movements since I have more 'time' to react. It's actually very frustrating, because you feel like your body's full of lead because forces are so much 'stronger' in relation to you,"

Jessica moves her hand over her head, indicating I've switched to technospeak again.

"Sorry,"

"No big deal,"

The sun is now lower in the sky, and it starts to cool, so we continue to converse. I tell her about all I've learned from the digivice program. I leave out the part about having full anatomical scans of everyone. I haven't looked at them, though the temptation is great. I did open Anna's briefly, unaware of what I'd see, because of the DigiCode-labeled buttons. It only showed as far down as her collarbone, but the bare shoulders part told me too quickly what would happen if I scrolled down. I closed that in a hurry. I was in the company of three other sentient beings, of course.

Before we knew it, the sun is setting again. It felt like a short day, though we don't know if time flew by because we were having fun talking or because it was convoluted dream-world time. I long since decided that this must be the real Jessica that I'm talking to, in her dreams, possibly mine too, because the conversations I have with people in my dreams tend to be illogical. Regardless, I finally ask the question, "How do we get out of here?"

"I don't know," she replies, "I've always woken up. This is the first time we've had a dream together. Visions always end by themselves. But how do we get out if this is different?"

I am silent, as is she.

: : :

Justine and Anna share a smile as they watch the peacefully sleeping Virginia. After a quick diaper change and feeding, the rambunctious two-year-old was more than willing to fall asleep on the double-layered quilt. Her small shoulders rise and fall as she breathes in and out ever so slowly. On either side of her, the two girls recline on their sides, watching the dormant toddler.

Justine whispered to Anna, "We've only got four more diapers left. Whatever's going down here, it better do down fast, 'cause our supplies are low. You did get rid of that last diaper right?"

"'Course" Anna replies, anxious to forget the experience of holding a smelly diaper with two fingers which running a quarter mile before finding a small indention in the ground and covering it with a large rock and running back before her lungs gave out.

Justine looks down at Virginia again, and Anna quietly comments, "Justine, I don't like look in your eye, girl. You're fourteen years old."

"What?" She laughs, "Yeah, she's cute. It doesn't mean I want to have one of my own right now."

"Justine, you seem worried,"

"Well, we just brought a two-year-old within a mile of something real evil,"

Anna looks around, "We're close? How close?"

"I don't know. But it's not far from here."

Anna smiles, "Justine, Virginia has proved to us on several occasions that she's very powerful."

"She's asleep. She still needs to be watched carefully."

"Why don't you just figure out when we're going to get attacked and where, and we'll be ready."

"Very funny, Anna,"

"What?! I didn't mean it like that. I thought you could figure out whatever you needed."

Not whispering, Justine snips, "It's not that easy!"

Virginia makes noises and coos, but doesn't wake up.

Justine closes her eyes and walks away. Anna briefly checks Virginia and walks over to her out of Virginia's earshot.

"Justine, what is up with you?" Anna asks, genuinely worried and not one to enjoy tense situations.

Almost crying, Justine replies, "Anna, you don't know what it's like. Yeah, you hear things a lot. A lot of the time, it's helpful, but…" she trails off as she kneels down on the ground. Anna joins her, putting her arms around Justine's shoulder. Justine continues, "I can't walk down the school hallways without each locker whispering its combination into my ear. It's not fun to read books anymore because there are no surprised endings or sudden twists. I've got the biggest damn headache from having Fate constantly whispering in my ear for two weeks straight." At this point, she breaks down crying. Anna holds her, letting her head rest her lap, she, too, crying and stroking Justine long, dark hair.

"Anna," she gets out between bouts of weeping, "it's killing me."

"Justine, don't say that."

"'Procurare' means 'sacrifice' in Latin,"

"What?" Anna yelps.

"The rest of the names in the prophecy were just names. But 'the Shield of Procurare,' my gift, it means 'the shield of sacrifice.'"

"Don't say that, Justine…" Anna weeps

"Anna, I can deal with being a martyr, but for God's sake, I'd like to know what I'm dying for."

"You're not gonna die, Nova," Anna says, her voice taking on a rather thick, Southern accent, like her mom's does when she's yelling at her father. "I won't let ya. We've gotta protect Virginia."

Justine suddenly screeches.

"Nova…?"

Justine starts to mutter, "The attack… the evil… it's gonna happen right here, over there at the coast…" she says, pointing back toward the coast, with the sleeping Virginia between them. Anna looks over, seeing a cove. There's a rather short beach, no more than five-hundred feet in a three-quarters-of-a-circle pattern, which a sort of gateway between two, tall bluffs with impressive pinnacles.

"There? When?"

"Midnight," she says, her face scrunching. Anna looks at the moon high in the sky, and then at her watch: 11:57 PM. She curses, grabs Justine's wrist and starts running manically toward Virginia, Justine in tow.

They reach the quilt just as a loud, inhuman screech fills the air, waking Virginia, who begins to cry loudly. The loud splash and crash of waves, indicating something large emerging abruptly from the water alert the two girls. Anna causes several fires to erupt on nearby vegetation, giving them a ghastly view of the monster from the bright moonlight and brushfires.

The creature somewhat resembles a large octopus, with no eyes, and one of those round, fanged mouths that you only see in movies. The color is almost indistinguishable, but Justine's bet would be a poisonous purple-gray. The tentacles are not octopus-like, but rather like an opaque jellyfish's: formless, bulgy, and prickly on the ends.

Anna gets a fire in her eyes, "Hey, Justine, watch Virginia. I think we're having sushi tonight. Cooked if you don't mind…" but she doesn't finish her monologue. Justine is already a third of the way to the cover, deliberately walking. She tries to call out, "Justine, get back here," but retreats to protect and comfort the screaming Virginia.

Justine breaks into a run, emitting light, and jumping into the air as the Inquirer. "Enigma of Star!" she cries out, emitting a huge blast of starlight at the monster, who hisses in pain before jutting several of its pointed tentacles at Justine, causing her to fall form the sky. Anna doesn't leave Virginia's side, but transforms just the same, suddenly feeling a chill because of her thin, wispy dress. It doesn't help that she is naturally warm-blooded.

But Justine pulls herself up, much to Anna's relief. The relief is fleeting, because, to Anna's horror, the monster starts to crawl from the water. Anna picks up Virginia and moves forward, in case she needs to aid Justine. She fears not for Virginia, who has lived through these adventures before due to her own spherical defense aura and those of her protectors, not to mention the powers of both parties.

"Hey, you," Justine cries, "I'd get back into the water if I were you. You're gonna have the Inquirer to mess with, buddy!"

"For goodness's sake, Justine, stop. He's too strong."

In her own cryptic way, Justine replies, "I know."

Anna runs closer, adamant that Justine not do what she's trying to. To her bad fortune, she has ignored the creature, which has aligned all his tentacles into a crude firing range-like array. Justine, sees this, turns, and runs to warm Anna, but she's too late. The swarm of needle-like projectiles burrow themselves into the ground like javelins. Three do the same to Justine: one through her left shoulder, one through her right upper arm, and one through her right hip, all three deeply imbedded. Now, she is only feet from her friends. Anna examines the angles of the needles immediately. The one in her arm would have gone through Anna's heart; the other would have struck Virginia somewhere on her torso. She kneels down, still ignoring the monster. Justine looks up, pained, "I'm okay,"

Anna tries to say something, but can't; she just grabs hold of Justine. _There's still a chance she could live._ Tears begin to flow from Anna's eyes. She lowers her head to the ground, not knowing what to do.

Her semispherical aura flickers, then starts to burn all over, creating a dome of fire around the three girls. As if fuel were suddenly thrown on top of it, the fire grows, slowly at first. Unlike the loud crackle of a so-called roaring fire, this fire roars with the volume of a thousand lions. From a distance, it looks like the rising sun as it explodes in size. The earth shakes; the noise is deafening; the heat is unbearable.

: : :

James, Matt, and Daniel watch over the sleeping Jessica. It's been four hours since she conked, but the boys are still restless. Well, James and Daniel are plenty awake. Matt is comfortably resting with his back against a log, his eyelids heavy.

"Is that the sun?" Daniel asks, looking at the glowing horizon.

James replies incredulously, awkwardly turning around. "Can't be. That's the west. That's where the sun _sets_."

: : :

Diana sits by the fire, worried about Christopher, who has been sitting in place for two hours, in a trance, apparently communicating with Jessica.

She watches the horizon and the rising sun. She looks at her watch: 12:32 PM. Plus, the sun is rising from the direction they came: south!

But the light fades away.

: : :

Eric and Phillip lay, quietly snoring on top of their sleeping bags, a few feet apart, Wormmon sleeping belly-up on Eric's stomach, and Falkmon lying on his side on Phillip's stomach. A yellow light temporary lights up their faces, but subsides, affecting none of the group.

: : :

As the real Sun rises, Anna lies on her side, curled up, in her civilian clothes. Virginia walks around in her overalls before seeing her diaper bag lying on the singed remains of a quilt, covering in dirt and ash. She unzips the bag and pulls out her kiddy cup of apple juice, which she begins to drink. She looks back at her sleeping babysitters. Justine is on the ground, her face streaked with ash, her shirt with the left shoulder missing and the right nothing more than a strip of cloth. Much of the bottom half is missing as well. Her jeans are a mess, too. The left leg is gone up to mid thigh; the other leg is intact, but needlessly, as the waist area of the intact legs is burned away, exposing Justine's sunburned thigh. Her hair is frazzled and the ends curve up. She is barefoot, but scraps of scorched leather nearby look suspiciously like random sections of sandals.

The area around the cove looks like the result of nuclear blast. The two bluffs around the cove are gone, but much of their remains can be seen in the water. The right mountain is less than a hill and the lake can be seen to curve around that that the obstruction is demolished. The left bluff, stretching father, picks up again about a quarter mile down. The lake is calm, but low and littered with dead fish. The ground outside the lake facing the two motionless girls is devoid of any vegetation. There is not grass, no trees, nothing but black and dirt-brown. The forest can be seen to pick up on the far side of the lake. Behind the girls, opposite of the lake, is not so bleak. The grass is patchy, and the trees are leafless and scorched, but there are forms besides hills. By some miracle, the backpacks are intact, though the plastic logos warped beyond recognition, and the dye uneven, and the mount of dirt that was created by the heat protected them from complete obliteration by the inferno.

The area is also devoid of any animal life, not counting the dead fish. That is, until a pair of birds settles down on a naked tree overlooking the wandering Virginia. It is a very unlikely pair of birds. One bird is a bright orange macaw parrot with bright blue eyes swaying gaily. The other is a dark purple nightingale with a long neck, long tail feathers, and a long pall flowing backwards from the crest of her head, standing with regal grace. They both hop down and land on the ground, one excitedly, the other gracefully and walk toward Virginia.

Virginia's face is dusty, though she is oblivious to the condition. She is, however, very interested in the birds and holds her hand out to touch them. The macaw extends her neck, playfully trying to nip her fingers affectionately, but the nightingale intervenes, using her neck to block the macaw. She scoots up and lowers her head, allowing Virginia to stroke her feathered mane. She uses her head to lightly pop Virginia on the chest. She giggles affectionately. The macaw, disappointed, starts to hop toward the girls, and her companion soon follows, with Virginia behind her, her curiosity far from waning. The other two girls' faces are also dirt-caked, but two lines of exposed flesh can be seen on Anna's face, tear-streaked.

: : :

A/N: Hmm, that really took it out of me. I am physically tired. This has been the longest chapter yet. Expect more in the future if I keep up on this kick. Would you like a preview of the next chapter? Okay, maybe. I'm not saying it involves the Outer Triad and the Cave of Destiny, I'm just saying… Anyway, don't expect dull chapters from here on out.

(Sonriso) - Whoo, that was fun! If only I had remember to put on sunscreen! Creedog, where's the aloe vera?


	16. The Outer Triad

The Fate of the World: The Outer Triad

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The aftermath of Anna. The four DigiDestined approach the Cave of Destiny.

A/N: This is an important chapter. I know the last one was too, but the next few will be rather important.

* * *

Chapter 16: The Outer Triad

Justine groans loudly as she pulls herself up into a sitting position, aching miserably from the many scratches and bruises that cover her body. Her movements are pained by what feels like sunburn, thought she and Anna lathered themselves and Virginia with SPF 30 yesterday after both breakfast and lunch. Thinking of eating, Justine realizes the hunger pangs she has for not having eaten in awhile. "Anna," she manages to mumble, half opening her eyes.

Anna emits pained growl, turning her head to look at her friend, "Justine? You're alive?"

Justine touches her left shoulder, which is bare and find a sore lump of skin, a scar from the needle that pierced her shoulder. She rips off the scrap of cloth that composes the top half of her right sleeve, finding a similar lump on her upper arm. From what she can tell, the needle missed bone by less than an inch. She stands up, immediately grimacing from the sore muscles in her thigh.

Anna groans and pulls herself up, surprised to see daylight. She stands up and catches sight of the approaching digimon with Virginia in tow. Finding it best to be cautious, she attempts to make contact with her power, but falls to her knees, sending pain up her legs as her knees it the rocky ground.

"Sit down, Red-Furred One. We have no intentions of harming the infant," the dark nightingale states, in the tone of a New England aristocrat lady, confirming Anna's suspicions that the animal was indeed a digimon.

The curious Justine steps forward and quickly snaps her hand to her exposed hip, trying to catch her mangled jeans before they fall off completely, but pulls her hand away from the scar with shocked, "Ow!" Anna takes hold of the waistline of the garment from behind, and turning Justine around in the process to examine her groin area. Sure enough, just below the waistline, there is a lump of skin. "You're okay?" she asks, letting Justine hold the jeans up from the left side, which features a short-shorts length of pant leg.

Justine speaks of her sunburn, to which Anna replies about putting on sun block the day before. Anna turns her attention to the two bird digimon, "So, who are you guys?"

"Allow me to introduce myself," states the nightingale, her long tail and pall slowly waving back and forth as she speaks, "I am Novamon. My friend here is Scaradmon," indicating the bright orange and red parrot digimon with multicolored tail features, whose behavior is as bright as her plumage.

"Can I tell them why we're here?" the parrot asks excitedly, whose accent seems almost Hispanic in its passion. Anna smiles at the spitfire of a digimon.

"Go on," the purple bird replies indifferently.

"'The Sun shall rise when the full moon is high'!" screeches Scaradmon. "That is how I shall know when my DigiDestined Partner has come!"

"Fireball," mumbles Justine, "Anna, after I got skewered, you created some kind of intense fireball. I mean, look around you!" she exclaims, now just noticing the wasteland that the area had become. "Look! You practically obliterated two cliffs! That's probably what happened to my clothes," she remarks, "which reminds me, I gotta change…" she says, holding up her pants.

Anna frowns, "Assuming I didn't incinerate our backpacks," she carelessly comments as Justine runs backwards.

"Nope," she yells from afar, "the quilt's practically gone, but our backpacks survived. Miraculously," she adds.

"And dustily," Justine finished, coming back with both backpacks and a new set of clean clothes that contrast with her dirt-covered skin. Feeling the soil, she brushes it off with one hand. "I'd take a bath, but that water looks less than enticing," she comments, noticing the dead fish.

Anna also wipes one check off, but Justine grabs the other hand as she lowers herself so that she's face-to-face with the sitting Anna. "Tear streaks," she remarks.

"I'm not surprised," Anna says, lowering her eyes, "after you shielded us, or 'skewered' yourself, as you so tactfully put it, I can't say I was quite cheery," she gets out despite the lump in her throat. Justine strokes Anna's hair as she brings her closer for a hug, tears welling up in both their eyes.

"Shield…" mumbles Justine, then "…tear… Tear!" She grabs Anna's shoulder and pushes her back so that they can face each other. "The prophecy mentioned 'The Inquirer with the Shield of Procurare,' 'The Shield of Sacrifice,' and 'the Sanguine with the Tear of Nitorio,'"

"Notorio?" the parrot responds. "Nitorio is where my kind resides. It is called the 'The Brilliant City,'"

Justine smiles, "'The Tear of _Brilliance_.' That means we have found our Treasures."

Scaradmon scoots up to Anna, "And you may have found your digimon. If you indeed caused the sun to rise when the moon was high, then you must be my partner." She flies up and gets tightly hugged by Anna.

Justine looks to the reverent Novamon, "And what was said to you about your DigiDestined partner?"

"'She shall be to another as one is to you, and they shall be as you and she are."

Anna snorts, "Talk about vague and cryptic,"

"And Scaradmon, despite herself," Novamon says, the slightest hint of sarcasm in her flawless voice, "is my closest companion and friend,"

"As I am to Anna. I am 'to another as one is to you.' That means we are as they are, DigiDestined partners."

Novamon bows reverently before leaping into the air to land delicately on Justine's shoulder. Virginia, quite bored with all the talking, waddles up to Justine hugging her leg and reaching out for Anna's leg, but quite displeased that her arm span is inadequate. Anna, however, shifts Scaradmon to her shoulder and picks up the giggling Virginia, and sharing a secret smile with Justine.

: : :

Christopher, motionless, takes in a deep breath, his chest moving the most it's moved in a while. He is jarred to alertness by a tight hug on his neck. The certain shade of blond tells him the identity of his hugger. "Diana, what's going on?"

: : :

"What's going on?" I ask.

Diana practically shouts in response, "You've been in a trance for ten hours!" I look to the left and indeed see dawn becoming morning. I turn to Diana again, noticing the goldenrod stream in her hair. I purse my lips.

"I thought Jessica was in trouble, so I tried to help her," Realizing that I just accepted some blame that will not lighten Diana's mood, I start to control my words, "She pulled me into some kind of trance," _There we go, pulling the blame away from myself, allowing it to be Jessica's fault, even an accident on her part_. "We discussed what's going on in the various parties. She'll be going with the guys into the Cave of Destiny soon, which means that they can try to renew it and bring us closer to fulfilling the prophecy," _Direct, unexpected turn mixed with good news. Very clever._

Diana calms herself down, "That's good. I'm sorry for being so erratic. I was just worried." I pull her in for a hug, knowing her pain. Diana's family is close-knit, and she prefers her friends that way, too. And her social circle isn't that large at that. Our constant letters to one another have brought us very close, a closeness that is almost lost in the fury of the events that's happened recently. _I forget how close she is to me. Not that I'm not as close, but for her, it's just different. And I have to respect that._

I open my laptop, wanting to read the prophecy again to plan our next move, but I notice something odd. I put an image of Diana's depiction of the Symbol of Symbols as my background. It was fairly simple: white lines connected to white dots on a textured background—rough stone, in fact, to match her drawing on the stone wall.

But what catches my eye is that several of the white dots are gone, and in their place, images of different colored glass beads. I show this to Diana; she remarks, "Both partners, the cross, and one from the Inner Triad."

The colors seem familiar, but a noise from outsides shifts our attention elsewhere.

: : :

Jessica's eyes suddenly open and the first thing she sees is another pair of eyes: Daniel's tan-sprinkled sky blue irises. Daniel falls backwards and Jessica scoots back.

Matt leans down by her side, helping her up, "Jay, you've been out since about ten last night. It's almost eight in the morning right now. What happened?"

"I was communicating with Christopher. It started as a vision, but I got caught in a trance. Sorry 'bout that."

"No biggie, but we've got to tackle this Cave of Destiny. We got the three guards to challenge in addition to the other stuff hanging over our heads. Is everyone else having as hectic of a time as we are?"

Jessica replies, "Christopher said he's making a lot of progress on the intellectual front, but he hasn't done much fighting. And he hasn't heard from anyone else."

Matt laughs, "Okay, whose bright idea was it to go to the Cave of Destiny? So far, it's been the most perilous."

Jessica shakes her head, saying, "No, well, yes, but I have a feeling that the others are going to encounter some struggles pretty soon. The places they're at should be infested with the Darkness's evil. And we're the largest group. And Daniel and Matt, and now you, James are very strong. As tacky as it sounds, this is how it's meant to be tricky for us."

"Regardless," James jumps in, "we gotta get going on this renewing the Cave of Destiny stuff."

"Is anyone beside me wondering exactly how one 'renews' a cave?" Daniel prompts.

James sighs and comments, "Hopefully, we'll find out when we get there. C'mon, we're wasting time,"

It's a short walk to the cave, too short for Jessica's tastes. The eyes of all four are darting around. Their ears are open, trying to pick up any noises. Their breathing is regulated: slow, deep breaths. The stand before the Cave of Destiny, exactly as Jessica saw it in her vision. It has a rather small opening, a roughly round entrance of eight feet wide and tall. It's rather simple and unadorned, emerging neatly yet conspicuously out of the mountain. The colored light from the DigiDestined's crests burn beneath their shirts.

Just as the DigiDestined feel they might be able to enter without a fight, two glowing red eyes emerge from the darkness of the Cave's entrance. The creature as it reaches the sunlight is seen to be a large green- and brown-striped snake. It coils up just outside the cave, its aerodynamic head held high but looking downward at the poised DigiDestined. Its tail features a rather large rattler at the end of its thirty-foot length, which features dull spike-like protrusions, not gleaming like polished steel, but rather like thick, coarse iron.

Its blood-red eyes gleaming, it starts to speak, "Welcome to the Cave of Destiny. Entrance is strictly forbidden." With this, he lets out an annoyed hiss accompanied by a brief menacing rattle. "In my experience, I have found that most accidentally come upon us. They quickly leave as ordered. Others came to the Cave of Destiny with the purpose of trespassing on its provinces and exploiting its power. They will return in the next age."

Matt comments, "Next age?"

Jessica replies, "Digimon don't die a lot of them time, according to Christopher. They become eggs again. It's their equivalent to being reborn. It might take awhile though."

"Your continued presence here, Unmon, displeases me," says the snake. "You know the code. I have no other choice but to assume the Darkness has taken you if you do not depart from this place."

Matt rolls his eyes, commenting, "Anyone besides me getting tired of being mistaken for an Unmon? I say we kick this snake's butt… tail. Anyway, we need to get in, Fangface."

"Entrance is strictly forbidden," quotes the snake, rattling again. His scales, which are long, stiff flaps, flare out from his body, much like threatened cat's fur.

"Not an option!" Matt runs forward. The snakes strikes down, rows of fangs emerging in its open mouth, and bites Matt, whose leaf-green aura protects him. Vines emerge from the ground, wrapping around the snake, which slithers out of most, but is slowly fighting a losing battle to capture.

The mighty roar of a great beast causes the mountainside tremble. The sounds of heavy footsteps and breaking branches emerge from the forest on the mountain above the cave, getting louder. A huge shadow comes over the scene as a great, dark mass blocks out the sun, which lands forcefully on the ground, causing all of the DigiDestined to brace for a fall, but they manage to maintain their balance. They look at the heavy form that causes the quake now standing beside the struggling snake digimon. It stands up on its hind legs; it's a bear-like creature.

As it rises, it stands fifteen feet tall, covered in long, dark brown fur. Its breast however, is a lighter cream color, which spreads around its body, flowing around its arms and legs. Its ears are not bear-like; they are triangular, still furry, but lying flat against the bear's narrow head. Its snout seems longer than a bear's, closer to a wolf's snout. Its eyes, of course, are circular, humanoid eyes, like most digimon's.

The creature uses its oversized arm to break through the snake's confines with claws that seem extra-long, even for its size. Daniel and Matt gulp loudly, but defend themselves by transforming into their earthy forms. James and Spiremon fly overhead and James throws down a sword, which glows with energy before emitting a huge flash.

The guards aren't fazed by the light. The bear rips the sword from the ground in its paw, enveloping it completely, and launches it at Spiremon. James leaps off and deflects the blade with his arm and Spiremon swoops underneath him before landing.

"They're not overcome by the Darkness, Matt," James whispers to his friend.

"Well, duh," Matt says loudly, "they think we are." But the conversation ends at Daniel extends his arm to point at the digimon guards who are taking turn attacking the other. They see Jessica on the cliff, her eyes white, smiling. The guys laugh and immediately regret it. Both digimon close their eyes, the snake smelling with his tongue, the bear sniffing the air.

James sighs, then shouts, "Well, guys, let's show them what real DigiDestined are made of! Endurance of Steel!"

"Victory of Stone!"

"Might of Forest!"

The resulting fury of vines and stone shooting from the ground turns out to be too much for the struggling beasts. Spiremon swoops in and knocks the two over. The ground has settled; leaving a disheveled patch of terrain in front of the cave, with the huge beasts lay weakening. The crests of the three boys glow brightly, Matt and Daniels shooting beams at the two monsters, who are engulfed by the glow, and shrink into two ostrich-sized eggs, one decorated by brown rings, the other by green almonds.

The tranquility of the scene is hardly interrupted by a fox's head poking out of the cave, quietly grabbing each egg in its mouth and pulling it back into the cave. There is a soft growl, almost a purr, then…

"Mage's Fire!" The cave is lit up from the inside by white light, which seems to rush out. James, Matt, and Daniel are knocked down by the sudden explosion with throws their own rock and stone into them. Jessica crouches down above the entrance of the cave, seeing the briefly uneven area below her flattened, along with her three friends.

Spiremon glides down to face the bronze-furred fox, who steps out of the cave slowly, teeth bared, and a violet almond shape on her forehead. Jessica recognizes the creature immediately from her vision after facing the Rival; it is Aneramon. Aneramon speaks, in a low treble, feminine voice, "I'm surprised at you, fellow digimon. You challenge the Outer Triad. Those renegade Unmon with their stolen powers may have defeated the first two, but they fall short of the third."

"We only want in. They are not 'renegade Unmon' as you say. They are DigiDestined."

Aneramon scoffs and says caustically, "DigiDestined? Really? DigiDestined with no digimon partners. And no prophecy foretelling their coming. Not that the prophecies come true anymore." At this, it almost seems as if Aneramon is hiding sadness with her anger. "I refuse to accept your lies."

"I am the light-haired one's digimon. The other three have been given Powers. Mine has too."

"Powers? As in the archaic Powers of Crests? The Unmon created the Crests long ago as vessels of the DigiWorld's natural power. I see no reason why Unmon could not call upon these Powers easily." Aneramon crouches to attack. Spiremon remains standing in a non-combative way.

"I am Spiremon, an _armor_-digivolved digimon. The Unmon may have designed the Armor DigiEggs, but they do not control them. The Armor DigiEgg represents a quality, like the Crests. The DigiWorld will not grant power to any receptacle of power without come goodness by its owner, such as the virtue contained in the Crest or DigiEgg." Spiremon looks down on the fox sternly, his point made.

"Spiremon, I'll let you in on a secret of the Cave. I don't care because you won't be telling anyone. The Cave is the residence of many Unmon. I know how clever they are. And ones here are dedicated to goodness." The vixen's legs are now tight, ready to strike at any moment, but they loosen. Her sneer becomes a smile, "Wait. You said, 'three others,' beside the Unmon you claim to be your DigiDestined partner. I see two. Where is the other one?"

Without thinking, Spiremon shifts his eyes to look at Jessica, sitting atop the cave, just above the listening Aneramon. Aneramon emits a wicked laugh before making a few quick jumps, landing her the other way around so the can pounce on Jessica. Spiremon is too quick for her. As she jumps, he grabs her in his talons and throws her into the woods, then glides back over to Jessica, screeching, "Jump!" just in time to bring her off the cave as the agile Aneramon races from the forest and onto the cave, missing Jessica, but using the roof of the cave entrance to leap into the air, grabbing the ascending Spiremon's leg in her mouth. She doesn't last long and falls back to the earth for a soft landing.

"Spiremon, spin back around! I think I can talk some sense into her!" Jessica screams into Spiremon ear.

He turns around, replying, "You're crazy, but I'll stand beside you." He pauses, adding, "I'm worried about James."

"His Power will protect him, but not indefinitely. Aneramon is our first priority. She poses a larger threat to us all that our wounds."

Spiremon lands carefully, lightly on his injured foot, but keeps a menacing glance to keep Aneramon from taking advantage of the situation. Heart pounding, adrenaline rushing, Jessica walks forward toward Aneramon, though keeping her distance. "Aneramon!" she calls, "let's talk. Whether you believe it or not, we're DigiDestined. We're not these Unmons you and every other skeptical digimon talk about. We came here to destroy the evil intruder. We're not his minions."

Aneramon gives Jessica a look that clearly declares the message, "Liar!" which soon becomes, "I could kill you in a split second." Jessica bravely continues, "I am the Sister. The bearer of the Crest of Care with the power of Illusion. I have visions. They're painful sometimes." Aneramon replies by crouching lower, lowering her eyelids into a keener position, and starting to emit a rumbling growl under her breath.

"I had a vision of you once." Aneramon's eyes reopen, but her position remains firm. "The reason you're so bitter is that you were supposed to become one of the DigiDestined digimon." Aneramon's growl tapers off, but she remains ready to attack. "I saw you grow up. You were as fast as you are now. I saw the races with Tobalmon." Aneramon's body doesn't change, but the body language does. She remains crouched, but the tenseness of her muscles is gone. Aneramon's face is interested, her poker face defeated.

Jessica's poker face, however, stays strong, and thankfully, Aneramon doesn't seem to notice her profuse sweating. "Tobalmon, your brother. The one you left to fulfill your destiny of selecting the three guards, the Outer Triad, that was to protect the Cave of Destiny. I didn't realize that you'd given up and selected yourself for the Head Guard."

"Given up? I did not give up. The digimon of the land know the rules. Defeat a guard and you take his place. I always fight the challengers first, and I always claim victory."

"What about your next challenger?" Jessica asks, indicating Spiremon behind her. Jessica smiles and notes, "He did defeat the other two. But since he had help and he was supposed to challenge you first, let 'im at it." Spiremon regains his composure, caught off-guard by Jessica's signing him up to be a challenger for the position as part of the Outer Triad. Aneramon looks unimpressed. "Plus," Jessica adds, "If you win, I'll be unprotected."

Aneramon make a quick leap over Jessica and onto Spiremon, who frees himself with a few graceless moves. But once flying, he has the advantage. He grabs Aneramon again with his talon and throws her into the side of the mountain. She gets lost in the trees, but catches Spiremon off-guard as she emerges quickly from the forest.

Spiremon makes a quick dive, gets Aneramon around the flanks with his talons, and starts to ascend into the air. He does a midair backflip, releasing the terrified fox halfway through the flip and dives below, leaving Aneramon to fall her to her doom. She quickly reorients herself, but the fall is too great for her to land safely. She closes her eyes, howling, knowing her doom is near and embraces the quick deceleration that whips her body like a rag doll. It doesn't hurt as much as she anticipated. She doesn't feel the ground below, thinking she has been instantly numbed. As she senses the feeling of flying, she awaits her rebirth, not knowing if she will retain the memories of her past life. No young digimon has ever expressed such memories.

A sudden pain jolts her. She hits what feels like the ground after a short fall, skidding along, with the dirt infecting her nostrils. She opens her eyes to see the Cave entrance. Her body aching, she tilts her head around and realizes the truth of her situation. Spiremon had caught her in midair and released her to tumble on the ground. She tries to lift herself up, wanting to keep her post in the Outer Triad, but she feels… defeated. And it tastes rotten.

The female Unmon rebel comes up to her, to boast probably, but she lowers to one knee and examines the fox's body. "Aneramon, are you okay?"

"Give my congratulations to Spiremon. He is now part of the Outer Triad. Leave me; my body will soon deteriorate." But the girl pulls out her digivice and its purple light shines upon Aneramon, acting as an anesthetic, releasing her into the unknown. Aneramon feels small again. _The warmth of the DigiEgg is comforting. _But a soft breeze alerts her. Something is wrong. She wakes up, seeing her furry body. It's smaller somehow.

"You must be Jeamon," Jessica says, looking caringly into Jeamon's eyes. The fox pup sighs at the name she has not heard in many years. "But how was I able to dedigivolve?"

"This crest was meant for me… and for you. I think your destiny was more than to find the members of the Outer Triad. You also are DigiDestined, and I am your partner."

Jeamon curls up, pondering the words carefully, emotions brimming over. "Jessica," she begins, surprised by the childish voice she finds foreign but distantly familiar. "I'm very happy to finally meet you. The years have hardened my heart. Garlmon and Rattlermon both spoke of how each was to have a brother who was to be DigiDestined, but the partners never came. No one has believed the prophecies since, but yet we protect them."

"Protect them? Is that what was in the Cave? The prophecies?"

"That and much more. You may come in. The presence of four DigiDestined and two strong digimon make the Cave more than safe. I assume you'll be able to digivolve me?"

"If what Christopher tells me of the DigiWorld is true, then I believe so."

"Christopher? Is he a DigiDestined or an Unmon?"

Jessica almost laughs, "DigiDestined. He's my brother of destiny. Which gives me a sneaking suspicion about… I'll tell you later. Let's go get the boys."

Jeamon starts to run along, but is swooped up Jessica, who cuddles her. It's a foreign feeling to Jeamon, and she tries to resist, but quickly becomes accustomed to it, and even begins to rub her head against Jessica's shoulder. This is the Day of Days for her and even the blood flowing through her veins feels warmer. She is overwhelmed by how quickly it changed.

Jessica, on the other hand, is on alert. Though extremely happy about finding her partner digimon, something is nagging her in the back of her mind. She feels someone eyes on her back. It's much unlike her connections with Christopher, which usually produces something like an out-of-body experience, but this feeling makes her more than overly aware of the shell that surrounds her soul and the desire to retreat into it is overwhelming.

For a split second, the image of the Symbol of Symbols flashing before her eyes, with dots of colors giving it luster. But the next image does the opposite. It's a pair of watching eyes. The irises were a dull blue color, but the pupils were gleaming. The incomplete face seems familiar but Jessica just can't place it.

She helps the waking Daniel on the ground, her neck almost aching from the feeling of it being stared at. _Christopher, be on the lookout. I think something's going down…_

: : :

A/N: Whew! The longest chapter so far. By limiting the number of story arcs I include, the chapters become _longer_. Something's not happening right. Anyway, I'll try to get the rest of the series finished as soon as possible. I should stop making promises, because you'll need to forget my promise about keeping the story under twenty chapters, 'cause I'll probably go over a little bit. But it'll be worth it. I promise.

(Sonriso) - Oh, I get so excited over Creedog's stories. There so good and he puts a lot of work into them just to introduce little ol' me, the hero of it all.


	17. The Cave of Destiny

The Fate of the World: The Cave of Destiny  
by Creedogmon  
edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon  
_Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure (or maybe the other way around)  
Rating: PG-13 for violence and language (this is not something they would show on _Digimon_)  
Language: English  
Summery: The Cave Seekers enter the Cave at last. Meanwhile, Christopher worries about the lack of evil found at the foreseen spots.

A/N: We're right in the thick of my greatest ideas. If you're not enjoying it now, you never will. Wow, that was bad advertising. Anyway, keep reading anyway, 'cause if you're this far, you've wasted too much time not to know how it ends.

* * *

Chapter 17: The Cave of Destiny

A noise from outside grabs Diana's and my attention. I lay down my laptop and we slowly near the entrance of the cave. We look out; the grassland is as peaceful as it has always been. This is something I've never liked. Jessica said that this was one of the greatest areas of evil she'd seen, and so far, we've been alone, which has allowed us to have a fairly stable command center, but continually leaves us on-guard.

It turns out that something _is_ happening out here. A recent message from Justine reveals that Diana's prophecy spoke of certain items that we had to find, which Justine has assured us is metaphorical. They are tasks we must complete or actions we must perform. It's a good thing, because I haven't been looking for keys. So far, four of us have completed our task, I suppose, since four dots from the Symbol of Symbols on my computer screen have magically changed color. Two of them are Justine and Anna, but I don't know the other two.

Time slows down. _The DigiWorld has been giving us surprises right and left, and to tell you the truth, it's quite exhausting. My heart may never recover._ My hyperactive brain allows me the time to think and process the series of events. Right as I see the golden-brown, eyes with slitted pupils, they disappear as the large cat-like creature jumped out of the grass. Right now, the maneless lion hangs in midair, slowly lowering toward our group as a whole. Gravity and movement are slow in my perception. I start to back away, heaving my lead-heavy legs around to run, seeing Katmondu and IceFelismon crouch to counter his leap.

Time returns to normal at my will, and I spin and fall to the ground to watch. Harpymon glides forward to help Katmondu and IceFelismon, who don't seem to need the help. Until they're thrown off the cat digimon by its strong legs. It crouches down and I see that it doesn't quite resemble a lion. It's much leaner and sleeker. It's also black all over, more like a… panther.

Katmondu's crest glows, identifying him from his twin. The panther is caught off-guard by this strange occurrence, but acts unfazed just the same. The light-blue light makes the images of both Katmondu and IceFelismon blurry, and when it subsides, only one of them is left. He's facing away from me, so I can't see if he has the ice-tusks that distinguish IceFelismon further from my pet. To my utter surprise, it sticks its head forward to growl, only its head remains in place as well. Both heads are ghost-like. One of the ghosts bows down as if to start running, allowing the other ghost-like body in place. It starts to run off, semi-transparent strings connecting the two, which stretch and then contract as the other ghost cat follows suit. The two run in unison, translucent legs separating and reuniting, as if two independent IceFelismon or Defenders were co-spatial.

The panther's eyes widen, and at this time I notice the down-pointing, blue-green crescent on its forehead. _Tobalmon?!_

Tobalmon runs away from the ghostly creature that Katmondu and IceFelismon have fused into. I run forward and I see Diana get up as if to do the same. I run forward, but I'm not even in the same league of speed as the cat creatures. Harpymon comes and swoops me up, Diana in her other arm, and we quickly catch up.

The panther is racing straight toward a small lake. He leaps in, reminding me vividly of the dream. As the tigers reach the shore, one slides to a stop and the other leaps ahead, only to stop midair as if connected to a bungee. A nearly invisible force pulls him back and he rolls through Katmondu and stop behind him. "Katmondu!" the transparent half that must be IceFelismon screams, "We have to catch him! He's getting away." The Defender does not move.

My vision then clouds, as I fear I'm being pulled into another of Jessica's visions. Suddenly, I'm standing beside a mountain. I see Jessica at the entrance of a cave with a golden-furred fox. She's petting it affectionately, and I assume it must be Aneramon. "Jessica!" I call.

She lifts her head up, but looks down. "Chris?" she says, but her mouth doesn't move. The sound originates from within my head. "Can't you see me?" I ask aloud.

Jessica looks right and left, looking right through me. "No," she replies telepathically.

"Well, I'm in some sort of vision, and I can see you. Is that Aneramon? Or Jeamon?" I ask, unsure of the name.

"Yeah. She's the guard of the Cave of Destiny. One of them."

I look around, seeing the boys strewn on the ground, Delcomon tending to them. "Are they… okay?" I ask.

Jessica starts to speak aloud, informing Jeamon of her connection with me. "Fine… they were a nasty fight with the Outer Triad. We won, sort of. The other two are gone. Jeamon here dropped a level."

"Jeamon was part of the Outer Triad?"

"Aneramon was. It's complicated. Are you okay?"

"I was… chasing some panther digimon, maybe Tobalmon…"

"Tobalmon?" Jessica asks, alerting Jeamon.

"Tobalmon?" Jeamon breathes, "your… brother? He found Tobalmon? Can he hear me?" Jessica nods, and Jeamon, in her childish voice emotionally comments, looking around as if trying to speak to the invisible me, "Is he okay? What's going on?"

"Tobalmon was at our camp. My cat and his digimon are chasing him. Then I got pulled here, sort of." Jessica starts repeating what I said to Jeamon, who I realize can't hear me.

The scenery suddenly and quickly fades away and I'm again running. The Katmondu/IceFelismon hybrid has pinned Tobalmon. "Stop!" I cry, and the IceFelismon part of the fused creature ceases, causing the Defender half to resist. Tobalmon slides under and leaps into the water, swimming toward the other side again. I leap, too, and the time slow down occurs.

I race forward, around the pond. I can feel the individual zaps of the nerve ending in my muscles. The muscles around my heart and in my legs burn. Because of my speed, the pain seems to grow slowly, and I am able to resist it as well. Despite it, I'm definitely overtaking Tobalmon in length. Though I'm barely ahead, I will be able to catch him as he emerges from the pond.

I slide into his path, only then realizing I don't know what to do when I get there. He leaps out of the water; he would surely clear me if I hadn't reached up to grab him. He rolls so that I am on top of him, holding the wrists of his front paws. I feel he feet dig into my thighs. I, of course, am thrown forward, but time slows, and I twist to land in a prone position, able to chase him again.

He runs slower than before, and with slow time, I realize this because he's tired. I can clearly see the strained contractions of his breast, longing to breathe, but feeling the need to flee. I hold up my digivice, hoping he's weak enough for it to have any effect. Luckily enough, my digivice glows. His body is engulfed in light, and he shrinks down.

I grab the small Kiomon around the legs, much like I grab Katmondu. He struggles, but with my fingers entwined around his legs and neck, he claws and teeth are unable to reach my hands. "Jeamon says, 'Hi,'" I tell him. He immediately goes limp in my hand.

"What?" he responds in a purring tenor.

"Jeamon is at the Cave of Destiny."

"Doing what?"

I become quiet, cursing the poor timing of the vision's end.

_The Cave_…

Jessica, Jeamon, Matt, James, Delcomon, and Daniel stare at the entrance of the Cave of Destiny.

"I say we go in," comment James.

Matt smiles, "We might as well. Jeamon, are you sure you wouldn't know how to renew the Cave?"

"No," she replies, "The Cave has stood for ages; faithful Unmon studying its secrets; powerful digimon protecting its sanctity."

Daniel muses, "No human has ever entered this cave?"

"Never," Jeamon says, "they have never felt need to. Nor were they ever in this vicinity."

James stares at two objects sitting at the portal, "What are those things? Eggs?"

Jeamon frowns, "DigiEggs. The DigiEggs of Rattlermon and Garlmon. I suppose you have not fully defeated them. Take them with you. Infantile digimon are harmless and helpless."

They group descends into the cave. At first, the cave become darker, but they are soon greeted by light in the form of torches on the wall. As they turn one last corner, they find an artificial wall with a door built into the side of the Cave. Daniel tries to pull it open, but Jeamon casually mentions, "It's locked."

"Jeamon," a voice over what sounds to be a loudspeaker asks, "you have dedigivolved. Who are these Unmon?"

"DigiDestined," she replies.

"Where are Rattlermon and Garlmon?"

"They were turned to Eggs."

"Jeamon, you'll have to excuse our hesitance, but we cannot be sure that you have not been captured, and…"

The voice is drowned out as the sound of a loud clank is heard coming from the door. The door then starts to slowly open. Looking around in wonder, the guys see that Jessica is holding up her digivice.

"Chris mentioned to me that the digivices open all kinds of doors."

They enter what appears to be a very large laboratory. The tall ceiling, three stories above the ground is the rock ceiling of the cave. On either side of the long walkway are three-tiered platforms of laboratories built into the sides of the wall. Dozens of Unmon are each level, working on tables, standing in front of chalkboards, some in front of alien machinery. Many stop their work to stare at the intruders.

A dark-haired Unmon in robes comes up. "Jeamon, did these three Unmonoid creatures really use a digivice to open the doors?" he asks, hastily, anxiously eyeing the group.

"Yes," she replies, smiling and rubbing against Jessica, "this one, mine."

The Unmon's face shows disbelief, but replies, "Well, this is most extraordinary. We still study the prophecies in great detail, but never would we have expected their coming." He turns to the DigiDestined, "Pray tell me, how many of there are you?"

"Twelve." James replies. "We're four of them. But only I, and now Jessica, have digimon."

"Very curious. We are familiar with you."

Daniel stares in disbelief, "What?"

The Unmon sighs, "Come with me to the Archives."

The Archives in another room, built into the wall rather than into the cave's natural chambers.

"My name is Jikoji. I am a senior member of the Keepers of Destinies, highest access. The room we are about to enter is the Chamber of the Archives. Come in." He holds in hand in a small box built into the side of the chamber, where lasers scan his hand and the door opens, with an intake of air.

"These are the Archives," he states, allowing the group to look around a room, large, but cramped full of shelves and boxes. "Here is where all the prophecies of all forms can be found. Many are written on forms of parchment. Some in stone. We have fourteen written on glass spheres, pyramids, and other shapes. We have transcripts and testimonial descriptions of strange dreams. Here, in the Cave of Destiny, they are studied with the utmost care. Many are in different languages, others are written into puzzles, some on both; some are so metaphorical that we can barely begin to decipher their meanings."

"Why do you do this?" James asks.

"To avoid situations such as these. I have no idea how you were able to survive our world without contact with any Unmon or without digimon partners, minus you, sir," he states to James.

Matt replies, "We got… powers."

Jikoji is quiet, "The Powers of Crests, of course. Oh, it is coming together now. We have a prophecy which we call the Codex…"

"As in the apocalypse?" James interjects.

"As in the End of Days. The Codex speaks of the arrival of twelve DigiDestined who come to save the world. It will trigger the End of Days."

"You think our being here is gonna cause the end of the DigiWorld?" Daniel asks.

"Not the _end_ of the world. It's rebirth. Worlds are not meant to last forever. Eventually a new world with rise from the ashes of an old world. Every microcosm to every macrocosm experiences this periodic transformation. And this will transform the entire DigiWorld."

Jessica states, rather flatly, "Wow."

"The Codex was vague about the story of the Twelve DigiDestined, but it clearly stated the signs. Many years ago, we saw these signs and sent a message to prepare Digimon to escort you from your world. There was sabotage and the mission was compromised. It went completely haywire. Those assigned to the project were never heard form again. We like to hope they did everything they could, but no DigiDestined came, and we assumed the Escorts died in their attempts. We received numerous reports of the presence of an evil, incorporeal being in the last few days. I believe this to be the evil that the Twelve will fight."

"Is Gennai an Unmon?" Jessica asks.

Surprised, Jikoji replies, full of excitement, "Gennai? Why, yes. Gennai is one of the most well-respected Unmon in the DigiWorld. He's a hero for being the liaison to the Magnificent Eight. We asked him to undertake the initiation of the Twelve project. The Eight project was also blotched, and he made it one of the greatest successes the DigiWorld has ever known. He accepted. We have not heard from him since. How do you know of him?"

"He contacted me through a vision, showing me about the failure to send some eggs somewhere, and how the eggs were dispersed, and how Jeamon here grew up." Jessica replies.

"That would be the Twelve project… you all, I suppose. It is wonderful to hear he is alive. How very strange that he has not tried to contact us."

Matt, who is looking thoughtfully at a glass sphere, asks, "We've been in the DigiWorld before, and we returned. The reason we survived were our powers."

"Yes, the Powers of Crests. There is another cave on the Continent of Server where a team of surveyors mines out pieces of stone that show unusual radiation. From there a mystic examines the stone until he realizes, in a vision, what quality it embodies. He returns it to the laboratory and it is carved by a calligrapher. At first, it's only potential seemed to be to give digimon the ability to digivolve into the higher levels. However, we have an account from a young Koromon, who dreamed about DigiDestined using their powers to fight evil. The child had never seen an Unmonoid, so we assumed there was no way he could have known of DigiDestined, but by his description, it was infallible. We have it on record, but could never make head or tails of the Powers prophecies. And we certainly never made the connection to the Twelve."

Daniel looks to Jikoji, "And we are the first to use the powers?"

"I believe you are. We keep tabs on the actions of the DigiDestined, though we have obviously failed in your case. Never have there been DigiDestined who had no digimon partners."

Matt comments, "You know, we talked to those older DigiDestined the first time we were here, and they had no recollection of it. But they gave themselves names, didn't they?"

Daniel's brow furrows, "Yeah, but I assumed they'd made them up."

The guys are startled by a plop to the ground; it's Jessica, holding her head. They rush to support her. James mutters, "Jessica?"

Breathing heavily and wincing, "It was a fury of images, but I saw children, using powers, like we do."

"Who were they?" Jikoji asks, kneeling to her.

"I don't know," she replies, "but I have visions, as you can plainly see. I think something is trying to tell me that there were other DigiDestined with powers. Is that possible?"

Jikoji sighs and answers, "The only way that could be…" He pauses, and continues, "Some of the astronomers have noted a strange phenomenon in the stars that might explain something."

James, curiosity piqued, inquires, "What?"

"They call it a temporal metaphysical shift. Its existence is far from proven, but they believe that the use of the crests in their full potential, as in providing Powers, would upset the fabric of the universe. When too much energy is expelled at one time, it builds up and would start to destroy the matter around it. It would create a kind of black hole, where time and space would collapse in on itself. However, it is the firm belief of all that not all that exists is material. Intangible things, like hope, dreams, fear, love, spirit; these things would remain. These astrologers say that these forces would try to solve this problem by reversing or otherwise changing time to preserve it. In my opinion, it's too handy; these spirits would have to create an entirely new reality. The material world would return, creating a new existence, a new history, but the old intangibles, they remain, like water without a basin, and they seek to try to return through pathways of the mind or of fate. The practical rationale these mystics cite is the radial frequency of the stars, which they claim changes linearly through time, have not been matching the correct reading for several years. They studied the phenomenon more thoroughly, and found out that certain stars began to show a rapid acceleration to the very point which would be expected by the original linear growth. They calculated the distance away versus when the star 'fixed' itself, and claimed it was the speed of light. Metaphysics appears to be bound by the speed of light." He adds the last part with sarcasm in his voice.

James laughs, "Well, then there's a problem. The universe, time and space, is expanding, everything away from everything else. Eventually the epicenter of the metaphysical shift would be so far away from the 'sonic boom' that is 'fixing' time, that the velocity at which those two points would be moving away from each other would be more than the speed of light. The universe would never be completely corrected. Isn't that hilarious?"

He is greeted by blank looks.

Daniel nods, "Anyway, in the Real World, we have stuff like that, too. I don't know about stellar radiation, but we have those who believe in metaphysics. Reincarnation, time travel, déjà vu, Einsteinian physics, corporeal transcendence, and so on."

"There are those who say our world mirrors yours. Others say the other way around. I guess we'll never know."

Matt pops in, "There's this great _Calvin and Hobbes_ comic strip. Calvin is looking into a puddle, and wonders whether he is the reflection of the boy in the puddle. Hobbes tells him that if that were true, when he walked away, it was only because his reflection was and that he would therefore disappear. Calvin stands there all night. The only way to tell which world was the copy would be to destroy one and see _if_ the other one remains. Unless these fixer-upping Power-That-Be warped time or whatever."

"Speaking of mirrors," James asks. James spins around, eyes wide with fear. "Who said that?" he asks.

Daniel gives him a look, "You did."

"No, I didn't. It was my voice, but it wasn't me."

"It was me." A robed figure, an Unmon, appears from behind the shelf.

"Reveal yourself!" orders Jikoji, "Do you have access to this Chamber?"

"Shut up!" the Unmon yells, his voice sounding very much like James's. He throws a small metal ball at Jikoji, who falls down on impact, clutching his chest.

The four are transformed within moments. Delcomon looks at the enclosed space, knowing it would be foolish for him to try to digivolve in closed quarters, so he retreats to the top of the shelf, ready to attack.

Jessica's digivice glows.

"Jeamon digivolve to… Aneramon!"

Aneramon leaps forward, grabbing the Unmon's robe and ripping it from him. Underneath is James's clone, who gives an unamused grin, holding his hands up, "Well, you've caught me. Olly-olly-oxen free." He puts his hand in pockets, and asks, nonchalantly, "So, who wants a piece of me?"

The inhabitants of the room fade from his sight. "Wow, good trick, Sister. Do you do birthday parties?" He closes his eyes and leaps over to the shelf and grabs at the air, but coming in contact with a body. Startled, Jessica drops the mirage, and finds herself very close to James's clone. "Hey, sexy," he whispers slyly, "why you hanging around those goodie-two-shoes?" With this, he squeezes her buttocks, "How 'bout a real man?"

Jessica slaps his hard across the face; the noise even echoes once in the cave.

"Bitch!" he cries, slapping her back, just as hard and shoving her into a shelf, which falls over. Glass objects slide off and shatter to the ground and the next shelf over rams hard into the wall, cracking; sheets of parchment fall to the ground. Jessica falls unconscious. The clone slips her tag necklace off her neck. Aneramon quickly knocks him over, away from Jessica.

"Execution of Steel," he cries, blasting Aneramon into the ceiling.

"Who's next?" he asks, getting up.

Daniel walks forward, "You just can't get enough, can you?"

The clone smiles, "Never. I am insatiable."

James lunges forward, punching his look-alike several times, ignoring the blood that comes from his lip as a result and slams his parody against the wall. James holds the frightened replica against the wall. "So, what do you call yourself?"

"I am the Hypocrite. Yes, watch your eyes get all white. Your friends didn't mention to you that your evil twin would be the worst part of you: the fact that you're a lying, self-righteous coward. You hold the Crest of Righteousness. I, in your place, hold the crest of Sin." James drops his twin and shoves him against the wall.

Two rock columns emerge from the ground and close on the Hypocrites' shoulders. A distinct snap is heard and James falls back, Delcomon catching and taking him to safety.

Daniel, his arms out, says gravely, "You know, Hypocrite, in the short time that I've seen you, you've lived up to your crest by breaking several cardinal sins. You've been proud and vain the entire time. Jessica can attest to both your lust and wrath. And greed," he adds, taking her crest of the Hypocrite's paralyzed hand and tossing it to her.

Matt puts his hand on Daniel's shoulder, "Well, it would be a shame to kill him without letting him finish up. Release him; I'll take it from here."

Two roots emerge from the cavern's ceiling and one wraps around the Hypocrite's neck and the other to the other vine. The vines retract, though the latter has slack. He walks up to the Hypocrite, talking with restrained fury, "Let's see, which are you missing? Gluttony? You said something about 'insatiable,' right? You're not even struggling… sloth. That only leaves envy…" The vines start to pull up. "How 'bout envying the fact that we'll all still be here in ten minutes."

"I doubt it."

"You still won't," Matt counters.

Daniel turns to Matt, "Hanging him? What about James? He'll suffocate."

The vine connected to the Hypocrite's neck breaks and he falls, but shop short as the other vine because taunt. Another distinct snap is heard. After a gasp, James immediately starts to heal. He wipes the blood off, showing a healed wound. He rolls his shoulder and neck wincing. "Sorry, man," Matt apologizes.

"It's okay. It doesn't hurt like real. It's more like when you sleep wrong you get muscle pain. Why didn't he disappear?"

The boys look back. The body, the head hanging askew, remains held by the noose. Matt lets the root slide out of the ceiling and the body lands on the ground, and a pool of blood appears around it, but is absorbed into the ground. The body begins to melt until only a skeleton remains, which falls apart, the bones becoming dust.

Matt swallows hard, "That was graphic."

Daniel cries, "Jessica!" The boys run to her side, where Jeamon is waiting. Matt touches her neck, "Her pulse is strong. Is she breathing?" Jeamon quickly nods in reply. "Then she'll be okay."

Daniel starts tapping her check, causing the bruised Jessica to moan, "Tell me you kicked his ass," she finally makes out.

Matt laughs, "You can ask James about it later. But, yeah, we definitely laid the smack down."

"How's Jikoji?"

Daniel runs over and finds Jikoji resting himself against a fallen shelf, his hood up, "Sir, are you alright?"

"The Hypocrite poisoned me." He pulls his hood down, revealing a callused, deeply wrinkled face. "That ball he threw at me, it releases a chemical that rapidly ages the body. This is a much more powerful version. The Gennai the Sister spoke of is also infected. But he has lived for many years. I am afraid I will not make it through the night."

"But, sir…"

"Leave me."

At this point, there is a crumbling sound, and the cave floor shakes a bit. A loud cracking noise erupts from above the Archives. "What was that?" Jessica asks, her voice soft and shaky.

Matt exhales, "It could be a cave-in. We'd better get out of here. It's probably my fault, bringing those roots through the rock."

Daniel nods, "Don't worry about it. It's probably not a big deal. But I suggest we evacuate. I'll get Jikoji. Alert the others." Daniel leans over as a section of the cave, the far corner collapses in.

"Damn," James says under his breath, "Run, don't walk to the nearest exit." At this, he assists Matt in taking Jessica under their arms and carrying her out.

"Okay, I gotcha," Daniel says to Jikoji.

"I said to leave me," the rapidly aging Unmon tells him.

"That was when the cave wasn't collapsing. Dying in your sleep is much more pleasant than being crushed."

"Champion, the Archives are being destroyed. It's an omen. The End of Days is upon us. If you believe in reincarnation, I will return in the next age."

Daniel's digivice bursts with light. He looks to the ceiling and sees thick black liquid seeping through the cracks. "Oh, no!"

"Champion, if you don't leave immediately, you may not ever leave." Daniel runs out with a single glance back, as the deathly elderly Jikoji nods reverently. He hears the room, with all the prophecies and the old man inside, collapse. He forces tears away from his eyes.

The hallway, with its level of rafters is deserted. He turns back and sees the blackness seeping out of the mangled metal doorway. The tunnel leading out seems too long, but the eventual sunlight is reassuring. Daniel emerges from the threshold, collapsing the entrance with his power as he is safely out of the way.

Matt gives him an incredulous look, "Dude, what are you doing?"

"The Chamber of the Archives didn't collapse because of your roots. The black thing was seeping in."

The others exchanged glances, and Jessica voices their thoughts, "Are you sure?"

"I mean, I'm not sure. But it's apparently not something I thought was worth risking. Where are the other Unmon scientists?" he asks, noticing only his friends and their digimon.

"They escaped through a secret entrance. We told them we were taking the front door because we needed you." James asks, masking his suspicion, "You left Jikoji?"

"He insisted. I needed to save the world, so I had to save myself."

James nods in reluctant agreement.

Jessica mentions meekly, "Uh, guys, when James's evil twin knocked me out, I had this weird dream. I'm thinking it was…"

Daniel finishes her thought, "…a vision?"

_The Valley_…

Kiomon finally calmed down long enough for me to fill him in about everything: Jeamon, Jessica, us the DigiDestined, our Powers. He was fidgety, but I take it he was listening.

Not thirty seconds after I finish my spiel and wait for him to absorb it, I hear the telltale voice in my head: Jessica. Except… the reception's bad. I only get fragments, even emotions seem faint. I kneel over and close my eyes after informing the rest of the situation.

I am immediately knocked over by Kiomon. Eyes open, I follow the eyes of my compatriots. I have just been saved from a diving black glider, which is circling back.

A/N: Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha. Don't you just _hate_ it when I do that? I'm just passing along the aggression Dan Brown gives me. Anyway, I hope you're wearing your seat belts, 'cause I'm in no mood to slow down.

(Sonriso) - Is it just me, or are these stories getting to violent? C'mon, Creedog! I needed the Chuck Bucket from _Fear Factor_ during that last fight! Thank goodness this thing's rated PG-13.


End file.
